#cr3 e77

[lyadrielle]

Casually drop this WIP here and proceed to run away fast

I plan on adding some more stuff on this illustration. I wanted to experiment with a comics layout a bit :D

#critical role #critical role fanart #fanart #critical role spoilers #critical role 3 #spoilers #cr spoilers #cr3 e77

[cassafrasscr]

I continue to have so many thoughts about Ashton.

I've seen a handful of posts accusing Ashton of being selfish and power-hungry, and I don't think that's completely inaccurate, per se. I don't think it's fair to frame it as Ashton just wanting power for it's own sake without considering the larger context of the threat they're facing.

Let's look back on the Hells' first battle with Otohan.

Ashton was almost completely useless in that fight. He got knocked out twice in the space of a few rounds. Which, no shade. With her Echoes in play, Otohan was almost able kill Keyleth (a level 20 Archdruid, plus her elemental Wildshape) in a single round.

Ashton's whole job is to tank hits and deal damage. With an enemy that can deal out enough damage in one round to put the tank out of commission, his ability to mitigate damage to the rest of the party is severely hampered (if not cancelled out completely).

The only reason Ashton didn't also die in that fight is that his friends healed them enough that they could get back up again, and they were able to make a run for it before Otohan started going back to kill the PCs she had already knocked out.

And that was just Otohan. One of Ludinus' right hand generals, sure, but still nowhere near as strong as Ludinus himself (or even Predathos, if it gets released). Even once they defeat Otohan, the fight that's still in store for Bell's Hells is near insurmountable.

Taliesin has said in a previous 4SD (don't remember which one, sorry) that this fight was the moment that Ashton realized just how invested with this new group they had become. The moment he couldn't protect his friends was the moment he realized that he finally had the family he'd been missing... and by then three of them (Orym, Laudna, and Fearne - probably the PCs Ash was closest to at the time) were dead.

Not only could Ashton not protect his friends, he also ran. He left his friends behind and half of them ended up getting killed. I think Ashton may feel they left their friends for dead in that moment, the same way the Nobodies left him for dead after the Hexum Heist.

Now, I'm not sure I would necessarily equivocate these two situations - this is just where I think Ashton's head might be given recent events. I don't think he would see any significant difference between the Nobodies leaving him after his fall, and him running for his life during the Otohan fight. If I'm remembering correctly, this is also around the time that Ashton really started to double down on their "Nobody gets left behind" rule.

Now that Ash is aware of how much he cares about the other Hells, he will do absolutely anything to keep them. Bell's Hells is too invested in the fight against Ludinus to turn back, and Ashton is never going to leave them again. So if the Hells won't abandon the fight, and Ash won't abandon the Hells, their only option is to get strong enough to keep their friends safe.

So of course Ashton took the Shard of Rau'shan when Fearne didn't want it. No one else seemed able or willing to take it, so Ashton charged ahead with his decision the way he tends to do.

Was it arrogant and hubristic? YES. Was it a power-hungry thing to do? YES. Was it wrong to keep it secret from the rest of the group? YES. But there's not a single force in Exandria that will make Ashton regret taking that shard if it helps him protect his friends even a little bit.

It also feels fitting to me that one of the few things Ashton can't protect them from is his own poor decision making.

#also i think ashton wildly overestimated his ability to survive absorbing the shard #he's already survived so many things that should have killed them #he was told multiple times before this that it was a miracle he was anywhere near functional #why not throw more nonsense into the mix? #i will be chewing on this genasi forever #ashton greymoore #cr3 #cr3 e77 #critical role spoilers #meta #long post #critical role #i have so many thoughts about ashton

[dankestlesbian]

the only thing ill say is i hope either for the better or worse(because delicious angst ofc)i hope this is a turning point and next session they just start saying shit they’ve always wanted and needed to say to each other.

#critical role #cr3 e77 #imogen temult #laudna #ashton greymoore #orym of the air ashari #fearne calloway #fcg #chetney pock o'pea

[your-enby-antihero]

My open letter to Taliesin Jaffe

what the fuck. frankly what the fuck. sir what why how whom in what fucking universe. every bad roll for Ashton has been leading to them not FUCKING EXPLODING IN PERCY’S BASEMENT!!!!!!!!!! i am shock i am running so high on adrenaline rn. Sincerely,

a critter who will not sleep tonight

Also once again we give big ups to the best ever Aabria Iyengar for giving over that ring to save Ashton’s ass (in a very literal sense). And no to mention Liam o Brien telling Taliesin to not “Molly” another one of his characters 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 But why does Taliesin Jaffe specifically want to take my two favourite little blorbo comfort characters and put them in constant danger of getting fucking axed.

anyway hope everyone has a good night and remember to unclench your jaw and relax your shoulders much love ❤️ ❤️❤️❤️

#cr spoilers #critical role #bell’s hells #ashton greymoore #cr3 e77 #just to be clear where i stand #I love taliesin jaffe so much I love this story choice for Ashton it just ooooohhh made me stressed

[nerdlytreasure]

Maybe don’t grease the sled?

#cr spoilers #cr3 spoilers #watching critical role #cr3 e77 #eta: Liam just made my joke lol

[that-one-scared-gay]

i freaking knew what was gonna happen and i was still so stressed holy shit ashton

#critical role #cr 3 #cr3 e77 #ashton greymoore #being an idiot #wow

[widogaspmauk]

CR3 E77 Spoilers

From the point of view of the other characters, Ashton really just Leroy Jenkins'ed this shard, didn't they?

#this is a joke #critical role 3 #critical role spoilers #ashton greymoore

[crayistic]

(This is about your latest C3 post)

I agree that Ashton now may be too OP. I'm a bit sad things turned out this way (though seeing how C2 ended, I'm not entirely surprised Tal pulled thid move)....a part of me is expecting Matt to say that Ashton looses that shiny head of theirs and looses their dunamantic powers, and replaces them with elemental powers instead

CR3 E77 SPOILER!!

Yeah, i have nothing against him but I dp think it needs to be looked at from content, player and character perspective. I thought about this and wondered what I would do if I was Matt... i think it would be a good idea to basically make it that his body can't retain both of the shards, that the power is to much for longevity. Maybe they could use the harness to suck some of the power out and that would calm his body down, the opness and still have someone else be able to be beefed up abit. That was he could still retain some of the lava power also. I think that's one of the best options.

#critical role #campain 3 #bells hells #ashton greymoore #cr3e77 #critical role spoilers

[cassafrasscr]

Wait, so is this the second time one of Taliesin's characters briefly lost and then regenerated an arm? Do I have two nickles?

Even worse for Ashton, does he have yet another thing in common with Percy? 😂

#ashton greymoore #percy de rolo #percival fredrickstein von musel klossowski de rolo iii #cr3 #cr3 e77 #critical role spoilers

[your-enby-antihero]

From the Earth, Of the Earth , To the Earth

Summary: |Major Spoiler for Campaign 3 Episode 77| Orym reacts to Ashton’s big decision and Ashton is reminded that they stayed.

Notes: A fic I wrote after directing watching cr3 e77. To be abundantly clear because I’m seeing all the shit people are saying and I want to be clear that I love the choice Taliesin made for Ashton. The big character swing was stressful but I’m so excited to see how it impacts the story. No one get weird I just wanted to write a scenario that came to my brain that is it do not read anymore into my opinion of the episode go find my post on my tumblr somewhere.

also available on ao3

———————————-

Orym watched, helpless as he saw the arm of one of his dearest friends crumble to the ground. What the fuck was he supposed to do, he tried pulling the harness off Ashton, even with his limited strength he had been able to get the harness off Ashton, but that did fuck all.

Orym watched as FCG and Fearne both pumped healing spell after healing spell into the crumbling body of an earth genasi that was losing parts of their body rapidly. Orym watched as Imogen tried desperately to hold Ashton together by any means. Orym watched as he could see Ashton in the most intense pain he had ever witnessed. Orym watched as Laudna pulled Chetney and Imogen back from where the fucking mayhem was happening. Orym watched as Ashton’s body exploded into tiny little pieces of stone only to be crushed back together by the explosion of a ring. Orym watched as Ashton steamed and reformed. Orym watched Fearne kick Ashton in the face and walk off, and part of him wanted to join her. 

But he didn’t. Instead Orym walked up to the now smoking body of Ashton. As they inspected his new arm, Orym walked up and slapped Ashton across the face. As hard as he could muster, Orym put everything he had into the slap. With the newly steaming rock body and what Orym could only describe as magma, he felt the burn on his palm as it went across Ashton’s face.

The impact sounded, an echo throughout the gigantic room, on the platform with as much historical significance as Orym can think of. He bites his lower lip, tears threatening to spill. Though they were not tears of relief or tears of sadness and grief, they were full of rage. Rage Orym had not felt since he had seen Otohan Thull put a knife into his chest on the streets of Basurus. The emotions swirled within his chest as he watch practically in slow motion as the force of his slap didn’t impact flesh but moved the stone of Ashton’s face in stiff movement. And as time rendered itself around Bells Hells Ashton smiled up at Orym. A wide almost manic smile, one that only they could muster after literally evading death. And they laughed, an ear piercing cackle roared out of Ashton as Orym stood in direct eye line with him.

As Ashton calmed and they finally met Orym gaze Orym yelled.

For the first time Bells Hells heard Orym truly direct anger at one of their own. 

“Ashton Greymoore what in the sweet fuck were you thinking!”

Ashton sat heaving in breath after breath looking directly at Orym, “Fearne didn’t want to take in the shard, I wasn’t going to let anyone have that hot shard shit put in them if they didn’t agree fully and wholeheartedly. I knew what could happen, she knew what could happen. And we need this, you know we need this, so what else were we supposed to do?” 

Orym leaned closer to Ashton, “you could have said something, we could have figured it out we could have done something else. We could have all been there from the start.  I know that she didn’t have to do this, she could have stopped you, she is one of the best, most capable and strong people I know but you still made her start this alone.  You made her take that all alone, she was the only one here for a second as she had to watch you rip yourself apart from the inside out. I know what you were thinking and I know that you thought that this would be for the best but you made her start it alone.”

“And you wouldn’t have argued about me doing this?” Ashton shouted, their voice horse from whatever was happening to their body, “Orym we don’t have the time to worry about me. The moon is fucking waking up  and the world is fucking ending and you fucking think that I couldn’t handle this?”

Orym finally raised his voice, “I know you could handle this, you are one of the strongest people I know. You care and love so deeply that you would take it all from us. But I can’t let you keep doing this Ash. I watched you burst into tiny flakes of rock and I couldn’t do shit about it. All I could do is sit here trying and hoping that Letters and Fearnie could keep you up longer enough for you to stay as one piece. So yeah I did think you could do it, but hell if I don’t think you're stupid for doing it.”

Chetney chimed in from the back, “yeah you dumb fuck the ancient ass tree of fate prophecy bullshit said that you’d literally die.”

Orym gestured pointedly to Chetney to emphasize the point. 

“Look I know we don’t have a lot of time, I know we all have to make sacrifices for the cause but please just let us know what is going on in your weird fucking head so that we can do it together. I need to be able to trust that you won’t be pulling this kind of thing on us when we get up to the moon. Because we care about you Ashton Greymoore and we need you here with us with or without power of two elementals, sure it’s cool that you have that now but I can’t watch you do that again. You can’t make everyone go through that again,” Orym sighed, his heart squeezing in his chest as he pleaded.

The tension of the room had gone down, the red hot rage in Orym had cooled slightly. Ashton’s eyes dropped, he knew that it was a gamble but he needed to protect them all. He had survived this time, he had been there with all the people he loved and he had survived. He could see why Orym was mad, he would be pissed too if someone else had pulled this bullshit.

“Fuck I know, I have to talk to Fearne and… fuck I need to talk with everyone else. I’m sorry for making you worry, can’t promise it won’t happen again but thanks for sticking around.”

Ashton’s earth arm was grabbed by Orym as he helped the now fire and earth genasi stand.

“Always,” Orym said, a small almost invisible smile, a comfort offered to Ashton, “always.”

#critical role #cr spoilers #bell’s hells #cr fanfic #ashton greymoore #orym of the air ashari #cr3 e77

[crayistic]

With all due respect that comment about Ashley being “influenced by Taleisin” is so wildly parasocial. Ashley publicly expressed her discomforts with “encroaching” on the story line because she felt the shards were supposed to be about Ashton and Taliesin made sure to let her know publicly that her opinion on what they would be doing with it mattered JUST as much as his. As well as saying they should have a more in-depth discussion about it off screen.

There’s no reason to assume that some weird peer pressuring and/or manipulation happened behind the scenes just because a player decided to opt out of a narrative thing intended to go to them by the DM due to it being out of their comfort zone. Considering the crew are all adults and have been both friends as well as coworkers for years.

CR3 E77 SPOILERS

Hello there =]

I totally get what your saying but I did not mean it in any sort of malicious way. I don't mean Taleisin maliciously influenced Ashley at all. When you watch it it's easy to see that yes the titans are connected to Ashton but they are not supposed to be about him and only him. It's not as clear to begin with but then did become very clear that he was being pulled to the shard because the shard inside of him had a connection to it. Not because it was supposed to be for him. Matt specifically said two are not ment for one body. The emperor and empress. It was something ment to be shared, a way for more than one character to become stronger for the upcoming battle. But its also clear that Ashton wanted it for himself, despite the warnings and a clear direction Mat was obviously planning on leading them down.

Now i have nothing against players making decisions (or Tal in particular either) and I also don't believe the DMs narrative is absolute, but I do feel like of he had been encouraging to Ashley/Fearne instead of his back and forthness, it's so obvious that he had planned that from finding it out and he was going to make it happen in whatever way he could without directly being rude or demanding it. When someone says yeah ok maybe.. but then goes back on it, it doesn't give you confidence to think its ok. And to me over the few episodes surrounding it, he could have made her feel although she was incrouching, because noone else seemed to feel that way as they were not directly involved.

Obviously this is just my opinion and i value and appreciate everyone else's to so thanks for messaging =]