#AABRIA NEVER MISSES

[hellishfig]

i'm rewatching misfits & magic and i realized something

when dream gets her familiar theodore (who is a chipmunk), dream asks if he can secretly fight really well, with the specific wording of "go and crawl into somebody's intestines" and aabria, as theodore, says that he rides an old-timey bicycle

then in burrow's end, aabria'a first battle map is The Bear. and The Bear... has chipmunks inside it. in its intestines. being gross and shit

erika played dream and is also in burrow's end as ava and i absolutely LOVE witnessing that through line

#AABRIA NEVER MISSES #dimension 20 #d20 #misfits & magic #d20 mismag #burrow's end #aabria iyengar #erika ishii

[yashley]

deanna: i was brutally killed

deanna: i got better

#critical role #cr lb #AABRIA NEVER MISSES

[kiiratart]

I cast Blight

it’s been months and I still can’t get her out of my head... Laerryn ......

#cr #exu #exu calamity #exu laerryn #laerryn coramar seelie #aabria never misses her characters are ALWAYS my faves

[its-your-mind]

Deanna? Immediately agreeing to scry on someone for Orym?? Seeing that this person is hurt and weak and trying to push through it and just instinctively trying to cast Guidance on her? Mending the seed husk so that Orym can keep it as a reminder of this woman he’s so worried for?? Creating an image of the room for him so he can confirm that yes, that is home, she’s okay, she’s alive, she’s home??? Seeing how distressed he is and reaching out without hesitation to ask if he’s okay, if there’s anything she can do?

God I love Deanna Leimert so fucking much I’m gonna miss her so bad

#critical role #deanna leimert #bells hells #c3e64 #orym of the air ashari #keyleth of the air ashari #cr3 spoilers #c3 spoilers #aabria fucking NEVER. MISSES.

[wavebiders]

Oh no, I *really* like Deanna and Chetney

#dont mind me just getting caught up finally #but damn #I knew I'd love Deanna Aabria has never missed with me #and the character concept is awesome #but I was not expecting to have like #actual emotions about the relationship other than being entertained by it #but man this shit is compelling #critical role #cr3 #deanna leimert #chetney pock o'pea #deanna x chetney #do they have a ship name?

[sea-buns]

At this point the wildmother is the only god in Exandria that I care about. No one is doing it like Melora. Like if everyone perished but her I'd be totally cool with it. Maybe the raven queen can stay. Goth and cottagecore ONLY

#idk i just think wed be fine #if it was the gods of death and nature #i mean cmon. caduceus. fjord. orym. she literally never misses #also id like the wildmother to be my mom personally so maybe im biased #critical role #cr3 #bells hells #melora the wildmother #raven queen #i always go back to aabrias interpretation of the wildmother in exu. i loved how she interacted with them all. let her do everything i think

[humanbeanisnotamused]

critical role guest stars are a great way to find people that you'd never heard of four hours ago and would now die for

#critical role #they never miss! aabria iyengar! luis carazo! zehra fazal! robbie daymond! mica burton! #admittedly a skill issue that i hadn't heard of some of these people before but

[talesandfluff]

absolutely superb shirt right there

#aabria iyengar #the ravening war #her outfits never miss

[divinesouldariax]

have i mentioned i finished The Path We Walk here yet?

#critical role fic #this may not be the ideal way to announce it but i enjoy the meme #anyway if u like the crown keepers and were curious how #they got from the end of exu prime #to orym dorian and fearne leaving for marquet #this is the fic for u #featuring dariax being an oblivious himbo with confusing feelings for dorian #opal wrestling with wanting to go home but being soso scared all the time #cursed-by-the-spider-queen dorian (he is having a bad time at the jungle) #fearne honestly straight up vibing mostly #and a very slow burn 'orym tells everybody about will' with (i've been told) a very satisfying emotional payoff #also tetrarch umejii (aabria if ur seeing this. i see ur blorbo who u never got to show us and i have stolen her) #(she's my blorbo now.) #like 98% canon compliant im sure i missed a couple of tiny things #and extrapolated a hell of a lot more #anyway. i worked so fucking hard on this fic and it's really good #if you've ever enjoyed any of my writing and u care abt the crown keepers or even just the exu trio at all #u will enjoy it

[devnmon]

oh my fucking god... matt fucking mercer. i am............ SPEECHLESS!!!!!!!! i'm freaking the fuck out seeing robbie and anjali and aabria and amy again AND MATT AS A PLAYER CHARACTER FINALLY.

guys im SCREAMING. MY LOVE DORIAN STORM I KNEW YOU WOULD COME BACK TO ME SOONER OR LATER *sobs*

my head is exploding into many parts rn

#signed rye #c3e92 #dorian has been a favorite of mine for so long oh my fucking god i missed him so. bad. #i've never watched exu or any of the other ttrpgs so this is my first time watching MATT ACTUALLY PLAY!!!!! #i will miss deanna but aabria is there so its basically the same buT MY GOD #this is going to be fucking insane. IM SO READY #critical role spoilers #c3 spoilers #bells hells

[fjordstan]

travis sitting next to this couple's dispute like "laura come pick me up i'm scared 😩"

#critical role #cr spoilers #critical role spoilers #exu calamity #exu spoilers #travis willingham #sam riegel #loquatius seelie #aabria iyengar #architect arcane #laerryn #orig #keen eyes never miss their mark

[walkthroughtheforest]

So I just binged all of The Borros Saga: Banesbreak, and I have to say my absolute favourite thing was how the whole party met Kurse and decided she should be adopted by all of them. Immediately people were pocketing food for her and I loved how that trend was repeated. Obviously my favourite thing was how she became the only person allowed to touch Prythiv and the lovely relationship they have, closely followed by the tenderness between her and Gybe.

#the borros saga #the borros saga banesbreak #Kurse #Prythiv #Gybe #So this is the first time I have ever made a meme #this just shows how much I can't get them out of my brain #I swear Omar and Aabria NEVER miss #Please I need more of this

[grasslandgirl]

only brennan lou and aabria could get me to watch critical role; but exu calamity is in fact soososooooo 👀👀 i know SO LITTLE of the lore and i don’t plan to learn more than they tell me xoxoxo

#and that my mom a diehard cr fan chooses to enthusiastically impart to me bc i love her #cr #exu calamity #in other news im a SUCKER for the old friends and coworkers preestablished party dynamic MWAAHHH #its very eftbk off the bat for me and i mean that as HIGHEST praise #tbh im more interested in the political social structure of this flying magic city brennan has made than i am the plot but. whatever #in other news wow my friend aabria NEVER MISSES w character builds <33 #laerryn i love uuuu #also lou wilson pc <33 UGHHH always so so so so good

[thepringlesofblood]

i am SCREAMING!!!!! YESSSSSYESSSSSSSSSSSSSS ACOC is one of my FAVORITE SERIES ALL TIIIIIME!!!!!!!!

okwearebreathingwearebreathing

I’m going in-depth on the names we have thus far. Calorum is the setting that has some of the cleverest wordplay ever, period, and I want to know EVERYTHING about our new guys!!!!!

let’s get this one out of the way

Colin Provlone (Zac Oyama) - Provolone is a kind of cheese. Colin is a name of Irish/Scottish origin. It’s nice to have one simple one.

Bishop Raphaniel Charlock (Brennan Lee Mulligan) - hmmmm are we going to get an actually Bulbian cleric/warlock this season????

Anyway, the scientific name for wild radish is Raphanus raphanistrum, so that’s probably where Raphaniel came from.

wild radish has two other names - “jointed charlock” and “white charlock”. So there we go.

Your typical red radish (as Brennan described his character to look like) is a subspecies of Raphanus raphanistrum called sativus.

but!!! even MORE interesting!!!! you know what order and family radishes are in? the order BRASSICALES in the family BRASSICACEAE!!!!! Like a certain pontifex we know of??

This could be 100% unintentional, there’s a Lot of vegetables in the family Brassicaceae, but I remain optimistic.

Lady Amangeaux Epiceé du Peche (Anjali Bhimani) - so, Fructera has always been French, natch.

She is a mango! French for mango = la mangue

Amangeaux = almonds (according to google translate, I couldn’t find this word anywhere else online, it’s extremely possible that it’s just the most French-sounding way of saying “a mango”)

Epiceé  = spicy (can be used as slang for y’know. spICY)

du Peche = of peach. maybe she is of house Peach?

Karna Solara (Aabria Iyengar) - this one has me kind of stumped.

there’s the obvious karn->carn->meat connection, but she’s a chili pepper. lmk if there’s some secret vegetable lore I’m missing with ‘karna’

there’s also solar -> sun, which makes sense since the crest of Brightgarden is a big sun, and we see the DM screen this season has a big sun on it.

pLUS when I looked up scientific name for chili pepper, they come from the order Solanales in the family Solanaceae.

Thane Delissandro Katzon (Lou Wilson) -

Katzon

immediately made me think of katsudon- an egg rice bowl w pork cutlet on top.

thank you @blueaerin for your post about how this is most likely a reference to Katz’s Delicatessan, a famous deli in NYC! I never would’ve know that.

Also “katson” = Finnish for “I look” - from the verb “katsoa” meaning “to look at” or “to watch over” - probably nothing.

Delissandro - deli - deli meat

Delicatessen - the double s inspired by this?

while I was looking at Finnish stuff i found out “delissa” means “at the deli” in Finnish

Thane - y’all who read Macbeth know this one.

In Anglo-Saxon culture, It’s a title of a landowner, specifically someone who was gifted land by a king.

In Scotland, it’s a feudal lord.

There’s a connotation of military use in all of the descriptions I’ve found, so judging by the armor he’s wearing, it might be being used as a term for “commander”

#d20 #dimension 20 #trw #the ravening war #acoc #original post #ref

[spacient]

I fully love Dimension 20 and the way Brennan Lee Mulligan can tell an incredible story. Of course, the full cast of characters makes a huge difference in where a story can go, and there was no better cast than those they found for the Mentopolis side quest.

I've seen all the main seasons with the Intrepid Heroes, and I've seen a hefty chunk of the side quests. Here's my top 5 ranking for anyone asking:

A Crown of Candy -- absolutely BRUTAL. For such a whimsical setting, it's Game of Thrones out there. The Politics are messy, the war is dangerous, and The Hungry One has seized my appetite. Special mention to Matt Mercer for coming in on the prequel Ravening War side quest. That being said I have no idea if I can ever fully rewatch this.

Mentopolis -- whole opposite end of the spectrum in being the most cartoonish of all the series. I have never laughed as hard and as continuous as I have watching episode 4 of the series. Underneath all of the humor and tropes of a noir, it was incredibly philosophical. Also, I'm a big sucker for murder mystery. If ACoC wasn't as strong as it was, then this would be the #1.

Fantasy High -- a fan favorite. Such a fun romp and an easy-in to watching any DND campaign. The dice really do tell the story here. Shoutout to the sequel Sophomore year, it really fleshed out the world and characters far more. Maybe a little higher on the list than it deserves, but fight me this is my list.

A Court of Fey and Flowers - more politics dressed up for tea. Aabria Iyengar knows how to set a mood, and she knows exactly how to let her players drive a story in the setting she creates. There's something so special the way all of the players stay true to their characters even when it comes to making a difficult decision. They all came in knowing the assignment. Also, it sure is nice to see Brennan enjoying himself as a player #GiveThatManABreak

The Unsleeping City -- Heavily character driven. The concept of a fantasy world veiled around us at all times is heavily appealing. Another very philosophical season, and a season that isn't afraid to let characters have a little conflict with one another. The sequel shows the characters have incredible growth as well. Again, maybe a little lower on the list than deserved, but I can't justify lowering ACoFaF.

A special mention to Starstruck Odyssey for just barely missing the top 5 ranking. I really enjoy the shenanigan seasons.

#mentopolis #collegehumor #dimension 20 #prefrontal pis #just shuddup sam #intrepid heroes #had to edit the court of fey and flowers #plus a couple little typos

[heliza24]

Being a physically disabled Dimension 20 fan breaks my heart sometimes

I’ve been thinking about this since last Wednesday’s episode when we finally got a real scene with Lydia, one of the few physically disabled characters in the entire canon of the show. It was nice, but it was really just a lore dump. An excuse for exposition. A moment for Kristen to look good by expending sympathy/pity. (I’m a little frustrated about how that interaction went down. Extending the help action was nice but patronizingly touching the neck of a full-ass adult without consent was not. It was weird and not something she would have done to a nondisabled character).

I have watched almost all of D20 (still missing a couple of seasons) and as far as I know here’s where our list of canon physically disabled characters stand: Lydia Barkrock, Jan de la Vega (who feels pretty problematic to me, maybe more on that in a later post), one of the Dwarven statues in the temple in The Seven (who is not given the dignity of being brought to life like Asha), and Pete’s coworker in TUC2 who is in exactly one episode and is so unimportant I have forgotten his name. I guess you could make an argument that Gunny is disabled, but I don't feel that Lou or Brennan really talk about him or play him through that lens. So in terms of canon physically disabled PCs-- that leaves us with 0.

We do a bit better with neurodivergent characters and characters with mental health problems; Ayda (my beloved) is very well developed and Adaine is a PC. There have been some openly neurodivergent players, like Omar and Surena, whose characters also read ND to me. But that isn’t labeled or discussed in canon, so it's hard for me to know where to class that. I am going to focus the rest of this post on physical disabilities, since that is my area of lived experience. If another fan wants to write about their perspective of neurodivergence rep in the show, I would love to hear that, and will happily amplify.

There has never been a character with a sensory disability or a limb difference or a chronic illness (not a fantasy one, a real one) on Dimension 20. The only NPCs we have are nondescript, similar wheelchair users. And there has never been a physically disabled player at the table. On the flagship show of Dropout, a company founded on diversity and inclusion. It feels extremely pointed to me.

In fact as far as I can tell there has only been one (1) physically disabled performer on any of Dropout’s shows. (Shout out to Brett, you were great on Dirty Laundry.) Obviously I haven’t seen every episode of everything they have produced. If I have missed someone, please do let me know in the comments/reblogs. But it’s a problem. And Sam Reich even agreed with this criticism when I asked him directly about.

I do really hope they’re working on it, as Sam says. But why has it taken so long?

Dimension 20 has had trans and nonbinary and queer players. It has had players of many different races. I’m not saying that the diversity here is perfect; there should always be more POC in the dome, more queer people. We should keep pushing for that. (And we should also push for performers at the intersections of these identities!) But we’ve seen the ways this diversity has expanded and improved the different seasons, because diverse players create sensitively drawn, diverse player characters. They add details to their PC’s experiences that make them feel rich and alive. I’m thinking about each of Ally’s PC’s incredible capital G gender and Aabria “all my characters (even the stoats) are Black” and how excellent they all are. D20 would not be the show it is without this input.

And yet. And yet.

There are 1,000 interesting and complicated themes to explore around disability. Dealing with access. Dealing with ableism. Dealing with compassion and community care. Dealing with none of it and just being a cool fantasy or sci fi character that happens to be disabled. We don’t get any of it.

I watch my favorite show and I see myself in the ace rep and the female characters. But I don’t see all of me. I see a silent but ever present message: you aren’t quite welcome here.

I have this fantasy that I play in my brain sometimes that someday I’ll get to talk to Brennan in person, like maybe if I buy a VIP ticket and risk Covid to go to a live show or we run into each other on the street or something. I am able to look him in the eye and articulate why he NEEDS to include a physically disabled player in an upcoming season. I reference the ways he’s talked about inclusion and writing diversely on Adventuring Party. Maybe I hand him a handwritten letter, or hell, a printout of this post. And because he really cares about diversity and his shows and his fans he would listen to me, and cast a physically disabled performer in the next season.

But I think that might be giving that nondisabled man (whose work I adore, who I respect so much) too much credit. Because he’s had Jennifer Kretchmer, a physically disabled actual play performer, on adventuring academy to talk about access in gaming. He’s hired disability consultants. He knows about physically disabled people, enough to give us shoutouts as inconsequential npcs. And he still hasn’t thought to include us at the table. In over 20 seasons. None of that other stuff matters if we aren't given a seat at the story telling table, and the agency to craft our own narratives equal to other participants in the game.

When Lydia was telling her story in the last episode, I kept wishing for a prequel, where she is more than a plot delivery device and a kind but unimportant parent. I want to know about her adventures with her adventuring party. I want to see a talented, wheelchair-using actor play out the scene when she decides to put the gem in her chest. I want to hear about what happened after. I want to know how she survived. I want it so badly it hurts.

I am in the process of trying to find new indie actual plays that feature more disabled talent. I am learning how to GM myself so I can tell these kinds of stories. But it’s not the same as being a fan of something. Sometimes I don’t want to have to make my own representation. Sometimes I just want to turn on my favorite tv show, the one that I have cosplayed from and written metas about and loved whole heartedly, and see myself included.

If you’re another disabled or neurodivergent fan I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. If you’re not, I’d love for you to reblog this. I would love for the absence of physical disability in this show to be a topic of fandom conversation, at the very least.

#dimension 20 #d20 #my crip media reviews #being a fan is hard sometimes #and being disabled means you get left out of “diversity” all the time #I love this show so much it hurts #I wish it could love me back a little bit more #fantasy high junior year #fantasy high #my meta #dropout #dropout tv #Sam reich