#cr c2 finale

[finncakes]

what's the play here, beauregard?

#critical role #cr #cr3 #cr2 #beauregard #beauregard lionett #caleb widogast #empire kids #I AM STILL REELING FROM THIS #the rest of the episode? a blur barely remember it cause this is living rent free in my head #IT'S ALSO #extremely weird to hear matt imitating them when i'm finally finishing up c2 #anyways i am excited and terrified for tonight !

[utilitycaster]

The thing about Otohan is that she had an awesome mechanical build and she served a narrative purpose in that the party lived in fear of her for nearly 60 episodes but she truly did die as she lived, with a personality replaced by frogs and murderous intent. And the thing is I suspect there's plenty of interesting stuff about there. I've been there as a DM, having built a super cool NPC with worldbuiding ties that the party simply did not give a shit about, and I think that's the same situation here.

Legend of the Peaks isn't particularly meaningful since only two party members have any recollection of the Apex War and neither show the slightest interest in the politics thereof and they haven't really been relevant to the story. We don't know why she worshiped the Raven Queen once nor what happened to make her stop while still using that symbol...and it hasn't really been relevant to the story. We don't know if the backpack came from her or was from Ludinus...but it's not really relevant to the story other than tracing the potions of possibility back through Treshi and Jiana. We don't know what specifically drove her towards the Vanguard other than lacking answers as a Ruidusborn - which may have simply been enough - but again. Not relevant. We have Liliana to represent the perspective of a Ruidusborn who went through the Omen Archive study and whose motivations warped and twisted from a place of genuine worry and fear, and we have Ludinus to represent the centuries-long architect of this entire plan (plus he can't stop monologuing about his motivations, and that is a compliment). That's plenty.

And so Otohan consistently fails the Sexy Lamp With A Gun Attached Test, and it doesn't really matter, and I'm sure there was a backstory there but there's quite literally been no reason to care about it at any point, and I think most people do not. Her entire purpose within the narrative was that of a sentient evil Jersey Barrier that ultimately had to be blown up. I'm infinitely more interested in the loot drop that resulted from her death (and obviously the emotional ramifications of FCG's sacrifice) than any of her repetitive zealot bullshit.

#sam should play an apex war veteran #having further Thoughts re c2 character creation vs. c3 here #bc like. fwiw due to the ties to jiana? i suspect if the party hadn't been able to call in the VM favor for laudna #otohan might have become rather more relevant #OR if treshi/bassuras had been paced out differently and they had to spend more time in the Paragon's Call #like again i think the campaign mostly recovered post-solstice from the slog of the 20s-40s infodumping #though the scars remain; but i think otohan's intrigue was absolutely a casualty of the issues at that time #as i think i said recently had the party gone to yios first i think that would have fixed a LOT #anyway. last hanging thread of plot from that has finally been severed thanks fcg you were a real one. rest in piss otohan #cr spoilers

[dirt-and-scrivles]

Jester!

#after like a year and a half of being a critter I’ve finally finished a drawing for it #jester lavorre #I adore her #FUCK drawing anything that even kind of counts as a background #critical role #critical role c2 #mighty nein #critrole #laura bailey #cr c2 #my art #critical role fanart

[pocketgalaxies]

i decided today is search for grog day

#bc i did make it to this point in my c2 watch #finally. the legendary legend of the legendary bertrand bell #0m OSx28 #text #critical role #cr extras #the search for grog #cr lb

[aeoris4lovers]

(click here to read on ao3)

The Thelyss manor was far colder than usual on the night Deirta Thelyss received word from the Aurora Watch in Bazzoxan, a message long expected but never spoken of aloud. Death itself chilled every inch of the stone, a stubborn draft that no door or window would dare try to keep out. The sour realization of new grief clung to every throat and held the house hostage in its vise. As they struggled to catch their breath, the thick silence sat heavy in their lungs. 

Ever the poised diplomat, Deirta kept her grief behind closed doors, shutting out even her own sons. The moment the messenger took their leave, she locked herself away in the room she once shared with her husband. No one would see her fall to the ground; no one would hear the cries she choked into a pillow that had already stopped smelling like him. When she finally emerged – days later, not having eaten or rested since the news came — it would be with smoothed hair and a stoic face, her formal mourning attire the only sign of her grief allowed to remain. Her sons would wonder if she had ever loved him, if she had ever loved, and she would make no effort to convince them of her capacity for the feeling.

At the door, Essek stood behind his mother, memorizing each word the moment they left the messenger’s lips: weeks had passed and their search parties had been unsuccessful. With all options exhausted, his father was presumed dead.

The weight on his shoulders, which he had waited so long to have lifted from him by that news, only grew heavier. He stood there long after the messenger left and his mother tucked herself away, staring unblinkingly at the closed door until his vision blurred, each word replaying itself to the point of senselessness. They jumped and turned in his mind like pebbles on a sea floor, smoothed by the currents of emotion that drained from him and left him numb, until there was no such thing to Essek Thelyss as a death or a father.

He didn’t look away as his brother came down the stairs to meet him, though each step on the cold stone sounded to his ears and felt to his chest like a gunshot. He didn’t know if the steady pulse he heard crashing over his head was Verin’s voice calling his name or the sound of his own blood rushing past his ears.

If he had looked up, Essek would have seen Verin there, eyes wide and spilling over with tears in spite of himself, looking suddenly so much like a child again, begging his older brother silently for answers: What have we done? What do we do now? How should this feel?

But Essek only kept staring, eyes trained on the ornate front door as though it were the lid sealed over his own casket, as a warm and calloused hand wound its fingers through his own.

The Thelyss brothers stood there, swallowed by the dark chasm of the empty foyer, until their legs grew tired and they fell together to the ground. Shadows of the events of the past weeks spiraled around them — words snarled and spat, doors slammed with bone-chilling finality, sides taken in a war of blood against blood, the silence that fell in the wake of it all. In the eye of that storm, they held tight to each other, their hands their only tether as the past’s vicious death rattle threatened to sweep them into its oblivion. Neither would remember how much time passed before the torrent calmed at last and they could breathe again, and take stock of all that they had lost and gained.

It was a bittersweet success, to fend off an evil that was also a father. There was no sweet thrill of victory to be found, nor any meaningful relief, in cutting the head from a beast that looked back at them with their own eyes. There was a calmness that came, foreign to them and welcome in its difference from the turmoil they had grown used to, but absence was a calmness that comforted only as it ate away at them from the inside out. 

In the coming years, there would be an unspoken understanding between the brothers, sealed in the furnace of heat shared by clasped hands. On the surface, it would call itself, “I do not blame you.” Beneath countless layers of carefully curated masks, though, its true name would be, “If you are to blame, then so am I.” 

In truth, both would always carry the weight of the part they played in bringing death to the halls of their home, but would refuse to place even an ounce of that burden on the other. Even as they said there was no other way — that their father had gotten only what he deserved, that their crimes incited no remorse and required no forgiveness — they would wash each other’s hands of all that had happened. Time and time again they would pardon and absolve each other, as if their brother’s innocence were the last thing capable of saving their own souls, as if the blood in their own veins would turn to venom the moment they allowed the other to be corrupted.

And every time their hands would find each other again, even in anger or after years apart, the touch would burn with the flaming ghost of the promises forged that night.

#hey look i wrote a thing! #i've been rotating this concept in my head for a while and i finally Did It #cr fic #essek thelyss #verin thelyss #the thelyss brothers #deirta thelyss #essek's dad (derogatory) #den thelyss #c2 #the mighty nein #critical role #cr2 #critical role fic

[luckthebard]

I love that we get to see the moment, 4.5 hours in, that they actually discussed: "Do we just make a fifth episode????"

#although it does put into perspective that they DIDN'T ever mention the time on screen for the C2 finale #which makes me wonder if they didn't notice how long that was while they were doing it #which is wild #cr spoilers #critical role #exandria unlimited: calamity #luck liveblog

[blorbologist]

“I think the best that we can do for eachother right now is if you see me falling down pick me up. And I’ll do the same.“

“Thankyou. That’s not that far, so - just a -“

Laura was just WAITING for that short joke huh JTRNHKRTNHKTNNHKNTR

#NTRKJRNHKNT I was zoned out making that Perc’ahlia meme for half of this but MAN am I glad they’ve finally talked #@ liam always having vax pick up scanlan in c1 and veth in c2. oh how the turntables #critical role #cr spoilers #critical role spoilers #orym of the air ashari #ashton greymoore

[mollymauknroll]

every once in a while i like going back and looking at old reddit threads about the moon theory and finding fun takes like this one

or this one

#something something apollo's dodgeball #the final fight mentioned in the second pic was the end of c2 btw #but still #critical role #critical role spoilers #cr spoilers #not really spoilers though #only implied spoilers

[yesifitswithyou]

i'm ready for some trauma

#finally starting c2 you guys #c2e1 #alex watches m9 #alex watches critical role #cr2 liveblog #cr liveblog #the mighty nein

[denkryn]

campaign 3 is actually nuts it feels like little to no combat for several episodes and then suddenly a BBEG fight that is way above the party’s pay grade

#every single boss fight i geniunely believe its a tpk #it always looks like its gonna go so horribly wrong #its a very interesting contrast to c1 and c2 #txt #cr #anyway im watching c3e51 finally #its wow— #bells hells are like foot soldiers in this battlefield

[criticalbeauregard]

it’s six hours????

#Is the finale gonna beat c2 finale or will it be 5 minutes of them just saying that everyone died? #critical role #cr spoilers #exu calamity #exu calamity spoilers #exandria unlimited spoilers #exandria unlimited

[blackbird-brewster]

I have trouble at night with my hell brain. As soon as my partner goes to bed troblin (trauma goblin) starts yelling at me about all my inevitable fuck ups. And I'm nocturnal, so I'm usually up for hours and hours after my partner is asleep.

So to combat this, I decided to listen to the Critical Role campaign 2 podcasts. CR is so important to me and revisiting c2 from the beginning seemed like a good idea to keep troblin at bay.

But then! I unlocked a life hack.... Listening to it sped up. I started with 1.5x, then 1.75x, 2x, 2.5x and finally 3x speed.

All of this was to say, my casual relisten of C2 (started only THREE months ago) will be finished this week lmaaaooo

"Casual" relisten has turned I into me listening to four episodes a night 🤔🤣

Oops!

#Guess I'll finally visit c1 after this #Critical role #CR c2 #mighty nein #Actually autistic #Actually adhd #About me 2k22

[utilitycaster]

I don't begrudge anyone their campaign preferences, and I think there's plenty of valid reasons to like Campaign 3 the best and this is not directed at people who are genuinely having a great time with it, but it feels like virtually all the nostalgia and wishful thinking I see surrounding Campaign 3 is screaming "you guys want Campaign 2." You want more slow travel and downtime and interparty conversations and slow-burn romance? You wish their main focus was fighting governmental corruption? You want a party that only semi-settles down at the end and keeps adventuring and remains very close? You're frustrated by how everpresent and overarching the moon plot is? You miss when they were just fucking around in a city? I genuinely believe you want Campaign 2, or at best you love a specific ship or a character from Campaign 3 but aren't happy about basically anything else, and would vastly prefer the tone and events and plot of Campaign 2. And I don't really care if you watch Campaign 2, or if you think I'm being annoying here; I simply genuinely believe you'd be happier watching Campaign 2 than Campaign 3 and are so deep in a sunk cost fallacy well you can't see it.

#the number of people who SCREAM if you imply campaign 3 is not the greatest campaign but also openly resent the moon focus is. high. #i've had my complaints about the people from c1 who would shit on c2 but i'll give them this: they actually do love c1. #it feels a lot of people just want bells hells at a chuck e cheese birthday party and like. that's not campaign 3 babe. #i actually have grown to really like the moon plot once it finally took off #and c3 has had some satisfying lore resolutions and new places #but it feels like the people who showed up to ship kind of hate the core plot of the campaign which. is the core plot of the campaign. #cr tag #this is intended to be read in conversation with the post from earlier about things not being deep too #like it's ok if your blorbo or otp is in c3...but if that's the only thing you love do you love the campaign or do you just love them #also. i also don't begrudge anyone their reasons for watching a show #but I've seen like three people i follow try to watch wot solely bc Lanfear is hot and give up bc there's so much lore #and people get mad candela didn't give them a happy ending for their ship #it really is like did you show up for c3 or did you show up for a blorbo delivery system #not realizing this is prix fixe instead if made to order

[andloveistoolong]

I find it very interesting that I start a taz balance relisten and then come home to find out that there's (maybe???) a city on the moon in cr

#this means nothing but my brain finds it very funny #im like 16 episodes behind on c3 #BUT i did recently finally finish c2 AND watched calamity so im pleased with myself #cr spoilers

[lappuncheung]

Bells Hells - 'Planerider'

Bells Hells are teleported into the Plane of Fire, into a place familiar to anyone who watched all of C2. Here they meet Planerider Ryn, who sets them on a mission to disrupt those trying to do something with Ruidis...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Happy holidays to everyone. This is the final piece of CR fanart I'm going to do this year, I can't wait to see what's coming up next year! :) (There is more old stuff queued up though!)

#critical role spoilers #critical role fanart #bells hells #planerider ryn #illustration

[luckthebard]

So this is a very niche rant that is probably only something I've noticed or been annoyed by, but:

The longer Critical Role has gone on and the more changes they've made/content they've created, there's been an increase in weird people who are desperate and determined to prove that changes or content they don't like are "an objective failure" - but often lie or deliberately misunderstand viewership statistics to do so.

There are a few big "facts" I see repeated by people to argue that CR has "gone in the wrong direction" that are just plain wrong, and I think what annoys me most is seeing so many people engage with those "facts" without bothering to double-check them or push back against the certainty with which people state them. An example of one I keep seeing now is "twitch streaming numbers are down" and it's like, yeah, sure, in comparison to when they didn't simultaneously air on YouTube. If you add up the YT and Twitch numbers these days it's about the same as mid-late C2, but people love to act like YT streaming doesn't exist to make a point that "people don't like C3". And I tbh don't care if people like or dislike C3 but why this determination to falsely quantify and validate a personal preference?

The earliest I saw this was an intense agreement on reddit that Exandria Unlimited was a "failure" for CR, "unlike Undeadwood," because viewership numbers were lower. And it was tbh baffling to not see pushback against that narrative, because it's just objectively untrue. Original EXU's VOD streaming numbers are higher than every single episode of Undeadwood, and it premiered literally years later. It also has a lower "drop-off" in viewership (comparison of how many views episode 1 vs the finale has) than Undeadwood, despite frequent claims to the contrary. And don't mistake me here, I really enjoyed Undeadwood, but it actually was a viewership misstep for CR to the degree that they didn't try anything like it again for a while after and significantly changed how they approached marketing and airing miniseries. (A big one being: don't air a long miniseries simultaneously with the main series, it's too much content for most people to invest in during a week.)

(Sidebar, but another great miniseries CR did that didn't get a lot of viewership love is the Elder Scrolls Online trilogy, so I'm going to plug it here. It has some weirdly low viewership numbers on episodes 2 and 3 and I promise you they're both well worth it.)

The other one I keep seeing is "4 Sided Dive has lower numbers than Talks" which is also just not true. Most 4 Sided Dive VODs have nearly twice as many views as Talks VODs (and I'm using the ones that aired directly on the CR channel as a metric here, not the ones re-uploaded from G&S which lost numbers in the change-over). And I'll tbh chalk that up to the fact 4SD airs much less frequently - people are more likely to think it's necessary to watch whereas with Talks if you weren't interested in the guests you might skip a week. I'm not making any claims about the quality of either show, but the use of false viewership statistics to support "one of these sucks" is so rampant and so weird.

All this to say that yesterday I saw a weird viewer-hungry YouTube clickbait video titled "Midst a FAILURE for Critical Role!!" with a truly absurd confidence on what the VOD streaming numbers for the Midst YouTube videos mean for the series mere days after the premier and snapped.

tl;dr, people just make shit up and say whatever on the internet all the time and we hopefully all understand and expect that BUT (and here's the more annoying thing) 9 times out of 10 people just engage with that WITHOUT LOOKING INTO IT THEMSELVES

#rant #critical role #long post #cr discourse #I guess? #as always I am begging people to fact check and question stuff that's just stated as fact by randos online