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Having had a day to think about it, I’m really wondering how much of this Crownkeepers-cut-to was planned. Obviously they had it in the works as an eventuality, but did they always intend to do it now, post-moon, or was this precipitated by FCG’s death? Did the rest of the cast know? Looking at how the episode was blocked out, how Matt banished everyone and then left before Aabria stepped in, it’s very possible that they weren’t on set the same day. Scheduling is hard enough as it is! Setting a separate filming time for the second act smooths the gears considerably.
If I had to guess, I’d say there have been loose discussions building a reunion with the Crownkeeper cast since episode 86 or earlier. They’ve probably been sharing their schedules and commitments, Aabria’s been brainstorming stuff, lines of lore communication have been opened. If it didn’t happen immediately post-moon (under other circumstances maybe not mid episode? though the drama was VERY good) it would have happened a little later, maybe pre-filmed, as a little break for the cast.
As for why they’d choose to do it now… though prior PC deaths gave multiple episode of downtime before people came in with their replacement character, those were also much different circumstances. Bells Hells are firing on full cylinders, they need their team locked and loaded, there’s a ninety percent chance they’re going to go to Keyleth and immediately volunteer to go to Aeor. One-two episodes gives Sam time to develop a character who can mesh with the rest of the team fast, and probably run a few playtests or minisessions since he’ll be jumping into a brand new build at level 13. It also gives them time to potentially book other guest slots, put Christian Navarro and Emily Axford on call as needed, etc. The whole party composition just changed drastically and they’re trying to juggle that amidst the schedules of some very busy performing artists!
As for how the Crownkeepers day in the limelight will end, it’s still very ambiguous. In the short term I think Aabria is angling to replace Opal with Deni$e in the lineup, relegating Opal to Zerxus level tragic champion of a Betrayer status. That’s if she doesn’t TPK the whole team of course, which there’s a small but not nonexistent chance she’ll do—Aabria pulls her punches a bit more than I would but she still hits hard. I don’t know if there’s a path for them to get to Bassuras to join Orym in a timely manner. My suspicion is that the mini game will end with them on the run from Opal, in dire straits, still in the middle of nowhere Tal’Dorei, headed vaguely to the Ashari, then Dorian getting Orym’s latest grief struck message and Robbie being put on the spot to answer in 25 words. Which seems like a very prettily vicious ending.
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Not sure how to explain my enduring weakness for Liliana’s shitty mom antics. It’s just. In a modern AU she’d be 53 year old separated-but-not-divorced semi-employed conspiracy theorist living a cabin off the grid chopping her own fire wood and corresponding exclusively by messenger pigeon. She’s got a an anti-religion religion that involves communing with the moon. She might be on the No-Fly List and she’s definitely banned from multiple local churches. She has a bittersweet relationship with her adult daughter who moved out and got on good medication where she couldn’t. There’s a twenty year old arrear against her for child support but she and her ex still have pictures of each other in their wallets. I know this woman. If she showed up to a family reunion and introduced herself as one of my aunts I would not question it.
#liliana temult#critical role#I come from a storied lineage of scientist farmers with hermit tendencies#whose repressed mental illness steadily alienates them and poisons their efforts to lead a normal life#if you think that’s a weirdly specific archetype please know it describes like three of my great grandparents#it’s just ranchers and engineers and rancher engineers and itinerant chemists all of them with drinking problems#a lot of new age mysticism too! amazing what being moderately clever and insanely depressed in the seventies inevitably lead to#she’s a mess but she’s a familiar mess
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still reeling at the reveal of the like. lateral consecution. that opal and ted went through. understanding yourself by splitting into pieces and getting to know them like strangers... so similiar to the dynasty's reincarnation consecution and yet so different. the luxon is so fascinating and the idea that possibly two entirely separate cultures both have lore and meaning and connection to the luxon through the beacons is definitely. something
#it's so good!#self knowledge through eternity self knowledge through refraction#light through a prism light reflected in back to back mirrors#cr spoilers
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Bringing on guest DMs solely to do this PSA over and over again
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Deni$e mention 2nite? Deni$e mention tonight ma'am? please I'm so hungry.
#this does firm up my certainty that any 'bells hells' in quotations show would have to be an exandria unlimited show#start with the search for grog special then the wedding then a rollicking two episode special of crown keepers#maybe play around with the animation style in there#then a movie/mini season prestige drama of calamity#throw a whole budget a that bitch#THEN you start up bells hells as a whole with all that as context
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"glassy veins are... the remnants of Predathos' last form..."
inside out insta-meteor theory CONFIRMED
this godeater hotpocket has a cold core!
given the theories about the ruidian glass as predathos' "brain" i tried to map it onto a neural cell, but the shape and mass just didn't work. what it actually reminded me of shape-wise was a dendritic cell; and those are immune cells. either way, fun little editing project.
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....starting to get the shape of how Ludinus sold radical anti-every-government-on-Exandria-action to Liliana. "Vasselheim is going to kill your daughter and it's YOUR fault" does seem like it would sway a terrified person, especially if they have a convenient run in with a Judicator early on in the seduction process.
#cr spoilers#she clearly doesn't have a lot of family outside of relvin#gelvaan is probably religious but she and her husband aren't#they have weirdly agnostic 17th century farmer energy#they live far outside of town they're both aloof#relvin was ready to LEAVE with her one day#and liliana did leave#she's kind of a paranoid loner at her core#and that leads into anti-establishment sentiments very easily
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This episode makes me wonder if there are TWO Breach avenues. One being run by Saskia/Hieronymous/et al which is targeting high Caenum service workers with nowhere else to go but the flexibility to disappear with little repercussions... and one being orchestrated by Kozma Laszlo which is inciting more high level political figures to defect and aiming to destabilize the Trust itself rather than just sneaking away a few unfortunate souls. It's possible both were being run out of Midst too; through the Black Candle cabaret and another in one of Laszlo's businesses. The moon mining operation seems like a possible hub and covering up evidence of her collusion would add an additional motive for the Baron to destroy it.
#midst spoilers#i still believe this! saskia and harry are soooo out of it#they are at most bit players and there's a good chance they don't know kozma has any opposition to the trust#obviously the baron knew they had their own thing going and probably trusted saskia as a mid level midst manager#but she was not in the inner circle (unfortunately)#(a lot more could have gotten done if everyone put more faith in saskia del norma)#hieronymous' approach of marrying imogen loxlee for access likely turned her off from ever trying to assimilate them#they're pulling out guys who work at bars and kozma was planning to blow up the central vault
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Eadwulf will always be famous to me for the fact that Caleb put being retraumatized by his former teacher on hold solely to admire Eadwulf's massive forearms
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Throwing my hat in the ring, I think Sam is going to (not should, going to) most likely come back with some sort of paladin, Most likely ancestries, imo, are dwarf, kenku, or a very small tabaxi. One of the moon people would be fun but it's harder to justify them with good healing abilities, short of some sort of bioengineer themed artificer. Either he utilizes the jail break that was concurrent with the split-party mission to bring in a paladin of a Betrayer god (very juicy potential that brings in god-loyalty from a new direction) or throws a lawful good paladin from Vasselheim at them and watches everyone cringe.
In conclusion: I think they should let Sam play Teven Klask's daughter.
#critical role spoilers#cr spoilers#critical role#subclass is tricky he and matt are always game to homebrew something after all#but oath of vengeance or oath of conquest are both primed for drama#paladin adds some healing capacity while also being a damage dealer#and lack of Big Damage is what killed them in the otohan fight#conquest would be especially juicy because it would let sam play high charisma again#and add another fucked up little guy to the hells repertoire of loose cannons and wild personalities#duergar would be very fun to see#and as for gods of choice... erathis or asmodeus are obvious and solid either as a coalition imposed babysitter or a further temptation#but he could probably spin gruumsh or torog or the allhammer#or tharizdun as a little treat for liam#or wild card flesh out avandra a little more with an oathbreaker
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@sicklyseraphnsuch replied to your post... wouldnt ruidus need to be hot to make glass?
See that's the interesting thing! Glass is a unique structure; it's amorphous, meaning the molecules are arranged loosely, without a crystalline structure, but also so tightly packed that they're functionally solid. You get this effect because of rapid cooling. That's why natural glass is only found in a handful of places where veryveryhot materials resolidify suddenly (volcanic flows, lightning strikes, inside and around meteor strikes). Big veins of glass aren't going to form underground (too much convective heat and pressure from the rest of the earth) under normal circumstances, which leaves us with two options.
a. Ruidus has a cold glassy core and the glass is a unique geological effect from the gods yanking apart the earth and forcing a moon into rapid existence before yeeting it into the cold expanse of space (inside out meteor theory)
OR
b. Ruidus has a hot, high pressure crystalline core and the veins are the result of Predathos sending out white hot silicate tendrils during failed escape attempts; possibly associated with those earthquakes we hear about (ultra obsidian theory)
given the theories about the ruidian glass as predathos' "brain" i tried to map it onto a neural cell, but the shape and mass just didn't work. what it actually reminded me of shape-wise was a dendritic cell; and those are immune cells. either way, fun little editing project.
#either way#not something we'd see in a nonfantasy geological environment#glass is fun and funky! it's not a crystal but it's not liquid either#most lava doesn't form glass because that high heat to rapid cooling requirement is so specific#critical role
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on a scale of 1 - 10, how much do you think Matt will hold Orym to his agreement with Nanna? given that FCG died but also given that they returned to exandria once before
1-2, honestly. I don't buy the claim that a short sojourn means that they've safely returned from their mission. The mission wasn't over! To use Nana's exact words they hadn't "seen this through". The fact that Nana (probably) intervened with the Weavemind means that she must still count this as the same endeavor. Orym worded his deal loosely to encompass a range of activities before it's "done", quite possibly up to killing Predathos. This campaign is far from over and Matt's going to save Nana's deal for a bittersweet epilogue, he's not going to kidnap a PC before the ends are tied up.
The one way I can see it being relevant now is if Orym leverages it for some sort of hard fey intervention to return FCG to life. A True Resurrection in return for the parameters being considered met isn't out of the picture, provided Sam is interested in it.
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#cr spoilers#critical role spoilers#I was originally going to do this in the Arthur format#but this was funnier
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"I'm alive because they made me alive."
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Sam Riegel really constructed the perfect tragic character arc here. A good tragedy is one rooted in the flaws of the character, written into the bones of their personality so that their downfall feels at once inevitable and entirely preventable. And that was FCG to a T.
Because they were so convinced they were less than everyone else from minute one. They were so self-sacrificng that their central healing mechanic was built around it. And they came so far towards self-worth. They found a God and a soul, they made friends that told them how important they were. They fell in love!
But it was never enough. It was never enough because they were literally built for this. Constructed with a bomb in the center of their chest and a martyr complex and so much love. Dying for their friends was almost an inevitable conclusion.
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