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captain-lonagan · 1 year

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TMA and EXUC: What Will You See If You Look Up

comparing the themes and Stuff of The Magnus Archives and Exandria Unlimited: Calamity. also kind of persuading people who liked one to give the other a shot since if you liked the themes and story of one you’ll probably like the other

Okay first of all: kind of spoiler warning? I won’t be giving like, exact episode plot twists but I will be discussing overarching themes and a handful of names and vague plot points. I say this with absolute sincerity though: you can go into either of these shows knowing exactly what happens and you still can and will enjoy every second of it. The inevitability is the point. This could only end one way.

Oh The Hubris. Oh The Inevitability

Zerxus Ilerez doesn’t believe in the gods and Jonathan Sims doesn’t believe in ghosts. The Ring of Brass and the newly appointed Head Archivist of the magnus institute are, compared to their worlds, young. But they know their place in it. With their rationality, their composure, they are above their predecessors. Jon discredits and debunks and denies, and the Ring of Brass scoffs at the Gau Drashari and the worshippers of gods. And why shouldn’t they, in this age of enlightenment and reason and sight?

The Ring and Jon both get their asses kicked. The world gets its ass kicked. There is a reason their predecessors paid their respects. And the thing is, no matter how direct a role the Ring and Jon both play in all the death and disaster, is it really their fault? To pull a quote from TMA:

You never wanted this, no. But I’m afraid you absolutely did choose it. In a hundred ways, at a hundred thresholds, you pressed on. You sought knowledge relentlessly, and you always chose to see. Our world is made of choices, Jon, and very rarely do we truly know what any of them mean, but we make them nonetheless.

The Ring, the enemies they encounter, everyone and everything was a symptom of an age of hubris. Jon was pushed and pulled and subtly and unsubtly guided towards choices. He did make those choices though, and the Ring made their choices too. Even if they hadn’t, then someone else would have. Jon and the various characters in the Ring all have different arcs, different interactions with the oncoming tragedy, but they all start from a very similar spot and are affected by similar choices.

Haunting The Story

One of the things I enjoy about TMA and EXUC is the vibe that these stories are happening in a world that exists outside our main characters. People we don’t see often still have names and arcs and places they fit. Time extends before and after the audience’s presence. One of the ways (but not the only way) these shows accomplish this is by having characters who exist and die (or “die”) before the story begins, but who continue to effect the characters and story after their death. For EXUC people think Evandrin and Vespin Chloras, for TMA people think Gertrude Robinson and Gerard Keay.

These characters had roles and jobs and aspirations, they had a place they belonged and people who knew them and maybe a few people who loved them. They’re long dead by the time the shows start, but the echoes of their lives ring in our ears for the whole story. Sometimes we get to hear the dead speak, either recorded or summoned or whatever, and no matter how massively they affected the world or how reverently their names were spoken oh my god they were just people. Gerard Keay hadn’t even turned 30, his humor was dry and he was bad at dying his hair. Vespin Chloras was an ambitious mage, a bit cocky but he was quick and clever enough to back it most days, and he tried. Christ they all tried.

Comedy In Tragedy

It would be a disservice to both shows to pretend they’re solemn marches to an inevitable and terrible fate. That’s not true. Even at the darkest moments in the shows, some coincidence will happen or some character will offer a joke and you can smile. You can laugh. And the jokes are fucking funny! The characters are charming and a good time! Loquatius and Laerryn are so fucking divorced! Martin Blackwood is an icon and Jon is a bitch! If either series was just sad shit or scary shit all the time I don’t think they’d be as good as they are. The comedic and soft breaks can give your heart a moment’s rest and humanize the characters. They also make the stakes of the fights higher because there is something to lose. These aren’t cardboard heroes on the line, it’s noir detective Cerrit (who I love) and his nerdy ass son Kir (who I love), it’s Sasha who mispronounces “calliope” and pretends to be the voice of reason even though she’s fucking insane (and I love her). Mercer’s discount spell ink and “lofi charm” and Bolo and…there’s a lot of heart, man. There’s so much light, guys. I’m getting incoherent I have emotions I’m moving on to the next thing.

The Bar Closes At Midnight

It’s not a spoiler to say EXUC ends in an event that wiped out two thirds of Exandria’s population. It’s a prequel mini-campaign, the final 24 hours before an event so fucking catastrophic it effectively resets society and becomes nearly myth in every other Critical Role campaign. Two years after the ending of TMA I think it’s not exactly spoiler to say that in season 5 the situation is fucking dire. The fourth and final episode of EXUC and the final season of TMA have my absolute favorite theme/trope/vibe: We might not be able to save ourselves, but we can save someone else. We can try.

The hubris and the forces we never stood a chance against have struck. The bomb is locked in, if it hasn’t gone off already. There will be massive casualties, there already are massive casualties. But maybe, just maybe, if we try very hard, someone can make it. And that is enough reason to contine. It is more than enough reason to fight.

There’s also an incredible sense of finality to the ending hours or episodes. Characters and locations we were familiar with make their goodbyes and meet their ends. The bar closes at midnight, and it is 11:30, and everyone we’ve ever known begins to finish their drinks and collect their jackets. It is ending. It is all ending. Maybe not for the world, if our protagonists play their cards right, but for most of the people we know it’s the finale and christ it feels like it.

In the face of absolute despair and absolute endings there is feverish and desperate hope and nobody ever forgets who they love and who they fight for. There are things we don’t see, of course. There are endings that aren’t set in stone, characters we may never know the true fate of, and plenty of characters we see meet their end. Both EXUC and TMA end in tragedy, but to pull a quote from EXUC:

Why do we tell stories? To try to make sense of a world that can be terrifying and enormous. In Exandria, I don't know that your story will long be known. I don't know who will remain to tell it, but it did happen — and it did matter. And though the Calamity is here, because of you, it will not be here forever.

I can’t promise that if you like EXUC you’ll like TMA or vice versa, they’re very different formats of story. But if you like one I do ask that you give the other a chance.

#tma 🤝 exuc: so much #this post is more for me than anyone else but hey #whatever #tma #exu calamity #also. gerry keay 🤝 vespin chloras #<- the thing that only makes sense to people who’ve completed both series

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burr-ell · 2 years

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heyy! hope it isn't weird or anything, but just wanted to say that i haven't been very active on tumblr these few days cause work and stuff and coming back now i'm just! really excited to see you posting about calamity? and that you also enjoyed it? i knew you had good taste cause of percahlia & cr1 but still :p And like, just in general, i'm really happy to see stuff about calamity on my dash again and from you specifically! :D honestly it has not really left my brain since it aired (nor did i stop writing unfinished wips for loquaerryn. oops) but it's not that prominent on my dash anymore so it's been really nice! and absolutely did not make me tear up [lying]. i'm just. it was so so good and poetic and doomed from the start but still hopeful in a way and just. so good. def takes second place for me as far as campaigns go [after cr1] so yeah sorry for the word vomit and the incoherency but i just. still think about calamity and laerryn/quay a lot and don't really have someone to talk to who watched it cause my friends didn't really go beyond ep1 yet if at all. so you watching it def got me excited. so. yeah. not sure where i'm going with this. i dunno. happy that you enjoyed it too i suppose? :D

ive been sitting on this bc im overwhelmed by how much ive missed u in my notes 😩😩😩

exu calamity is such a well-told tragedy, and i think part of what makes it really hit for me is that like any good tragedy, none of the characters involved are actually bad people. morally dubious, sure, but not evil. because when it's down to the wire and they have to choose between saving themselves and saving the world, they choose the world. like i love in particular the dynamic of laerryn catalyzing the doom of exandria...but also using the most reliable means at her disposal to save exandria. her work on the leywright was born out of hubris and yet its ultimate use was incredibly selfless and heroic.

and like, they all played a part in the flawed system of avalir! patia was a consummate ends-justify-the-means political-dynasty leader; nydas accrued wealth through unscrupulous means; loquatious used his position to cover up the truth; zerxus believed gods were comparable to mortals and that he could Fix Him™; laerryn put her work and achievements ahead of all else and let her own grief and anger consume her at the worst possible moment; and even cerrit, the least dubious of them all, never looked up at any of the things that mattered and nearly lost his family because of it.

they helped break the world, but their actions also helped fix it. and that's an absolutely brilliant dynamic and makes for such a fascinating, gripping story.

#plus it's full of L O R E #asmodeus is such a great villain too like he's such a good example of a tropey character done right #he could have been such a flat satanic archetype but he wasn't and i love that #critical role #exu calamity #asks

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