#exu ted

[song-of-baldy-ron]

Oh I love the idea of consecuted Opal, wanting to keep her innocence as long as possible so she compartmentalizes her past lives into Ted!!! I see their dynamic so differently now

#critical role #critical role spoilers #bells hells #crown keepers #exandria unlimited #exu opal #exu Ted

[elissastillstands]

It’s nearly been two years since EXU first came out, but I’m still obligated to draw every meme that comes out of the Barbie movie with my best girl. And who better to be her tired and spiraling counterpart than Orym? 

#critical role #exandria unlimited #exu #orym of the air ashari #cr orym #opal of byroden #cr opal #liam o'brien #aimee carrero #it is my deeply held belief that orym is a very tired guy in his mid-thirties at least. no i will not elaborate. #and adding ''and opal'' would have been the full bit. but. thinking about opal's whole thing with her own independence #and her desire to be unique and shake off her own secondariness and be someone other than ted's twin. #yes it's just a bit. no i cannot stop myself. it is that deep to ME.

[beedreamscape]

At the end of both ExUs it was love/fear that broke their resolve.

It was love for Ted that made Opal call for the Spider Queen and fear of losing her that made her put the crown on.

It was love for Quay that made Laerryn allow herself to be grappled and fear of losing him that made her blight the tree.

#i love themes and motifs and parallels #i love that quiddie is directly involved in both #i love exandria unlimited #i love women making hard choices in moments of tension that reshapes the whole narrative #ALSO ALSO TEMPTATION FROM BOTH PARTS #getting rid of the tree to get her leywright working to get evandrin back. knowing this also means something important #getting the powers the crown promises getting Ted back. also knowing she's at risk of corruption #yum yum yum #PARALLELS #exu calamity #exandria unlimited #cr stuff #critical role

[tmgstudios]

i am picking up loquacious seelie and shakijg him around i need your secrets you little manwhore. stop hiding them i need your lore

#IM SO INVESTED AHHHHH #exu:c #exu: calamity #exu spoilers #critical role spoilers #loquatius seelie #courtesy of ted #interest posting

[pocketgalaxies]

"like why did you even give me this power if you were gonna be such a little bitch about it."

#2h18m exu1e4 #sc #critical role #exu #exu prime #cr lb #opal cr #ted cr #cr cast #robbie daymond #ashley johnson #matthew mercer

[its-your-mind]

Y’all. I don’t think I’m ever gonna get over the emotional damage Calamity caused, but I think the thing I’m going to get over Least is my man Zerxus

Like. He was a paladin, but one whose belief in People, not a god, was what gave him his power and strength. He lost his husband in the line of duty, and immediately stepped up to fill Evandrin’s role because he knew that it was so vitally important. He met his son for the first time and immediately bonded with him, no hesitation, no second guessing. He has joined himself to a group of people who he truly believes want what is best for Avalier, and he gives them his full trust, despite the fact that all of them are the kind of people who hold secrets like jewels.

He had a dream that the world was going to end, that his son and husband were going to suffer (how could his husband suffer? he was already dead), and he chose in that dream to offer kindness to the being that had caused the destruction, but who was suffering, who was reaching out a hand for help, so Zerxus decided damn the consequences and whatever reasons the Dawnfather had for striking this god down.

When he met the Lord of the Hells (who looked like his lost husband) in the sickbed and found him suffering, helpless and dying, he didn’t hesitate to offer aid. He healed him and let him talk and share his hurts, with no goal beyond giving this being a small bit of the comfort he had clearly been denied. Only when he felt that this was the natural conclusion of Asmodeus’s words did he kneel, and invite him to kneel beside him, and begin to cast a Ceremony of Atonement. The Ceremony wouldn’t force the Atonement upon Asmodeus - it was there as an offering, an outstretched hand, a chance for Asmodeus to begin the road back to goodness, if that was what he wanted.

And Asmodeus is the Father of Lies. He had been watching Zerxus. He knew that the best way to entangle this man would be to expose vulnerabilities, to reach out a hand and ask for help, to offer up a story of poverty and misunderstandings and betrayals, because at the end of the day, Zerxus was, at his core, a good man whose belief in people was his power. He wasn’t looking for a project he could fix - he was always just looking to help anyone who asked for it to find their way back to compassion and kindness and peace.

Zerxus was shown time and again to believe with all his heart that anyone could be saved from their own evil choices, no matter how awful they were, as long as they truly were repentant. He didn’t offer the hand of friendship to every person or thing he fought - if someone was a threat, he struck them down without hesitation or remorse. And that’s why Asmodeus reached out in the way that he did - feigning a desire to be redeemed - because Zerxus would never strike down someone who was reaching out a hand towards him for help.

Even after it was clear that Asmodeus had betrayed him, had taken advantage of his kindness and slapped away his outstretched hand, Zerxus held fast to his conviction that everyone should be offered a chance to come back. Even as his skull is sprouting horns and his soul is being branded, he reaches out a hand to Vespin Chloras, a man who was so clearly being puppeted according to the will of another, and purified him, offered him a chance to undo some of the damage he had caused.

And y’all. Vespin didn’t run, didn’t try to figure out how to save himself - he used the few moments Zerxus had given him to give Zerxus more time, to do whatever he could to mitigate the horrible damage that Vespin himself had set into motion. Immediately after Zerxus had been betrayed by someone who had asked for help, he showed faith that a person could accept a path back if it was offered, and Vespin proved what Asmodeus had done his best to disprove - that anyone really can take a path back, so long as it is what they desire.

When Zerxus makes the decision at the end to stay alive as Asmodeus’s champion, he’s not doing it because he still thinks he can save Asmodeus. He gave up on that once Asmodeus revealed the truth about himself. Zerxus survives out of a hope that maybe, someday, someone will offer him a hand, offer him compassion, listen to his story, and give him a chance to atone. No one is too far gone to be saved from themselves, as long as some part of them wants to be saved. What kind of a hypocrite would he be if he didn’t believe the same thing about himself?

#critical role #exu calamity #zerxus ilerez #asmodeus critical role #asmodeus #calamity #calamity spoilers #exu calamity spoilers #critical role spoilers #I have been thinking about this for SO LONG and I just needed to SAY IT ALL #ty for coming to my ted talk

[patetemult]

It's all fun and games until they bring out THIS

Bonus, because they're still Them:

#critical role #exu e4 #exu #opal #ted #opal & ted #aabria iyengar #aimee carrero #cr liveblog

[ihavethecoffeeground]

#exu: calamity #exu spoilers #THAT FINALE RUINED ME #THE CAST WAS AMAZING #special thanks to Aabria for making me cry #and special thanks to Brennan for making me cry and sob #ty for coming to my ted talk

[ludinus-is-a-bitch]

Opal: FOOD

#critical role #cr spoilers #opal critical role #opal #ted critical role #opal and ted #exu prime #exu opal #BUT LIKE SERIOUSLY HOW CUTE #mollymauk tealeaf #molly x opal parallel

[criticalrolenpctournament]

ROUND 1, POLL 37

Which NPC is the best overall character?

#critical role #critical role npc tournament #critical role npcs #ted exu #liliana temult

[cryke-art]

(Pictured: a lined pencil drawing of ted and opal from critical role exandria unlimited. They are twins with medium dark skin and long hair. Opal's hair is white with her roots growing in and Ted's is dark and longer. They are laughing with their foreheads together and clasping their hands.)

My fave cr sisters!!!!!!!! The byrod-twins B)

#critical role #fanart #ted #opal #opal exu #ted exu #exu #cr exu #critical role exu #exandria unlimited #pencil

[gildedbarbarian]

Okay, we’re going to try this again. Critical Role has done a million things for me over the course of the 4.5 years I’ve been aware of it. I’ve attached myself deeply and unflinchingly to characters and plotlines, made and lost friends, found company when I was at my lowest, and learned how to not let loss completely wreck me. I have seen myself reflected in fuckups and godkillers, chaos-mongers and law-bearers. I have found pieces of myself in this show, one after another, that I wasn’t ever really aware that I’d lost in the first place. 

But this time, specifically, we’re talking about Opal. 

The first time I watched EXU Prime, I was in one of the darkest places of my life. I was closed off from everyone, not least of all myself, with only a vague idea of how bad things actually were for me under my mask. I couldn’t look. I didn’t dare. I wasn’t ready. So I watched it at surface level: I laughed during the pageant, I cried during the last episode. I displayed the socially appropriate level of investment in every character, every moment, every line. Like so many others, I was mind boggled by the general display of craftsmanship at the table, and by Aabria. (This was my first time really seeing her in anything at all. I’ll always be grateful for the Summer of Aabria.) I loved the series, I raved about it, and then I set it down and moved on. 

The second time I watched EXU Prime was a few months ago. Work had just started slowing down and I needed something to keep my brain occupied while I did mindless busywork at my desk. I figured why not: it had been a little over a year since I’d watched it, and I’d had fun the first time, it could only be more fun the second time, right? For the most part, I was correct. I was in stitches by the time The Crown Keepers got to breakfast in the first episode. I had so much more context for Dorian and Orym and Fearne. 

And then there was Opal. Now, in the interests of absolute transparency, Opal was a hard pill for me to swallow the first time I watched EXU Prime. She’s a masterclass in playing a character as exactly who they are without faltering, even when it’s uncomfortable. My first time around that block, I thought she was selfish and stubborn to a fault and relentlessly insecure behind the self-assured façade. I think I was right. I also think that’s why I couldn’t really look her in the eye at that time. I read once, and I promise this is relevant, that a lot of times the things that make us hate other people are the things we hate to see in ourselves. This is not always true, but it certainly was true of me with Opal. 

The real kicker is that with Opal came Ted. Ted, who I definitely considered the unheard voice of reason for her impulsive sister. Ted, who had given up so much for the safety of the one person in the world she could protect. Ted, whose sacrifice we still don’t know the extent of. Ted, who I could relate to and be unafraid of it, because she’s right and because she’d made the justifiable choices and because she was the one who got left, not the one who did the leaving. 

I was at work when it happened. I’ve gone back and scoured youtube to try to find a compilation of the Opal and Ted conversations from EXU Prime so that I could get the exact quote down word for word, but haven’t been able to find one. The gist, at least as I heard it, was this: Opal wanted distance, wanted power that was hers, wanted to be an individual without the baggage of her past weighing her down or the shadow of her sister just out of sight. She wanted to stand on her own two feet. Without help, without hinderance, without interference. She wanted to be just Opal. And Ted wanted to keep her safe. Would give anything, everything, in fact had already done so, to keep Opal safe. Because she couldn’t see herself without her, because her purpose was to protect her. Because she didn’t know how to do anything else. 

There’s this thing in therapy called inner child work, and it’s the hardest part of the healing process for me. Every step of it is painful, every Little Me I’ve had to look in the eye is a gut punch. But there’s one in particular that I’ve been ignoring willfully for years. She’s waited in my periphery, patient and resigned, for the day that I could give her even a fraction of my attention. That day was a few a months ago. 

I had to get up from my desk after the scene was over because I was beside myself. Literally having a breakdown at my desk, I rushed off to the bathroom to try to pull myself together. It wasn’t the first time, and it probably won’t be the last. Calming down took over 20 minutes of box breathing and other grounding methods, working my way back into some semblance of being present in myself.

And when I got there? All I heard was Her. Over and over again. Almost like she was screaming, like she’d been screaming for years. I’ve been holding this for too long. I can’t do it alone anymore. I need help. I need you. I did this to keep us safe, but it’s too heavy. Help me. Please. I’m afraid of what will happen if I let go. 

I was Opal. She was Ted. 

Both were me. 

I’m still figuring out what all of that means. All I know for sure is that I’m grateful: I don’t know how long it would have taken me to hear Her without Opal and Ted. It’s not easy. There are still days that I have a hard time looking her in the eye, but it’s a start that I needed to heal. 

#caro chats #critical role exu #critical role #exu prime #opal critical role #ted critical role #opal and ted #aabria iyengar #idk what else to tag this i'm still figuring it all out

[blazingstar24]

Lowkey thinking about how Opal and Ted’s situation could be similar how Evandrin is trapped on another plane.

Because currently in Exandria, the barrier between planes have been weakened. So what if Ted somehow accidentally got cast out to another plane but through her connection as a twin to Opal, she is able to stay in contact with her sister. Or is using her as a grounding point to the Material Plane. And grant her powers as she’s now pulling power from a different plane.

Which is also why Ted is insistent that she’s not dead, but she’s unsure of where her body is. She’s in that in between state much like how Evandrin was.

#opal exu #ted exu #exu spoilers #exu speculation #critical role #critical role meta

[breathalyzerfail]

Me watching Aabria on Adventuring Academy talk about Wuvvy and Laerryn and lightly touching on Ted and the Queen of Air and Darkness:

#adventuring academy #dimension 20 #a court of fey and flowers #exandria unlimited #wuvvy #laerryn coramar-seelie #ted exu #queen of air and darkness

[tmgstudios]

first of all through being a bird dilf all things are possible so jot that down

#cerrit #cerrit agrupnin #exu:c #exandria unlimited calamity #exu spoilers #interest posting #courtesy of ted

[pocketgalaxies]

opal: ted's not here

wildmother: that's not true

opal: ...is she here?? TED?????!!

wildmother: don't–don't yell. you don't have to yell. this is like, a peaceful moment.

#love the way aabria absolutely refuses to talk in Fancy Medieval Fantasy english no matter who she's playing #2h24m exu1e5 #text #critical role #exu #exu prime #cr lb #opal cr #wildmother cr #ted cr