Critical Role

[minor lantern]

Yes

[cold tartan]

And next week being January 15th lol

[mighty yoke]

||It also seems like that might be the last one of their arc before it switches tables||

[cold tartan]

E10 all || so like… did they just split the episode in two?||

[minor lantern]

||But I love this table ||

[mighty yoke]

||Which I’m lowkey very excited for since I’m very interested in both the others ||

[elfin sigil]

Seems like

[mighty yoke]

Seems like they might’ve

||Awful for the split one to be over a several week break though ||

[cold tartan]

Yeah || this was the the break for them probs ||

[minor lantern]

||Just give us an 8 hour episode ||

[mighty yoke]

Yes, except i need to go to bed lol

[cold tartan]

Taking a month off for a business model of monthly subscriptions is. Especially knowing when the renewal period will fall based on C4 start date makes me feel a little… annoyed ngl

Not much but a def a little

[minor lantern]

You have a good point there.

I am honestly surprised that they don't have a lot of stuff prerecorded.

[elfin sigil]

Marisha specifically cited their editing team needing a break

Which... CR isn't that edited

Cool Down is

But not the main show

[minor lantern]

Don't edit them then.

[cold tartan]

The only things I normally notice editing wise is like I think they film inserts of combat maps

And then also which cameras get shown etc. but like there’s still a bit of imperfection (ie not being in the ideal display for whatever is happening) with that which makes me think they still do a lot of that live

But also they did blur Liam’s iPad that one time so

-# also low key I feel like some of their production stuff really should’ve improved more now that we’re 5 years into pre records. Like how do y’all still not have a top down that can zoom in on the maps so they’re actually useful visuals for the audience

[elfin sigil]

Not convinced this is a great solution either tbh

I broadly agree with JMT that they aren't taking great advantage of having a prerecorded edited show

And I get they want the live vibe, but I don't think they have to sacrifice that to have CR be just a little smoother, especially when in its length its already a very tall ask

I don't think they should go full Dimension 20 either, to be clear

I just think there's a sweet spot and they're not hitting it

They are closer with CR4, the cold opens are great

[narrow bramble]

I like cr but for being one of the biggest liveplays out there almost every liveplay I watch i think has an equal or better layout

[cold tartan]

Yes that is what gets me

Because they have the money to like… hire somebody to operate the camera

[elfin sigil]

There's some element of the CR team that I get the vibe that they don't want to.... modernize? (not sure that's the right word) because they want to feel like they really are just Homies At A Table With A Camera, but they left that behind a long time ago

[cold tartan]

Yup feels that way for sure

Like I don’t mind that they mostly keep the same vibes as the stream era but like… idk there’s so much more they could do

Like Brennan is rolling in front of the table a lot… get somebody with an iPhone set up to show it

I know I harp on it a lot but it’s always so striking when they bring out a map and there’s big reactions… and we can’t make out any details. Or the amount of time they spend talking about positioning and we can’t make out where any of the characters are

[minor lantern]

For fights, 100%, I as a person always has trouble knowing where people are.

[raven bloom]

im over here vastly preferring how CR does it

[narrow bramble]

What other liveplays have you watched?

[red beacon]

I will say that I don’t like the slightly scripted vibe of d20

Like I don’t think it’s actually scripted

But it doesn’t feel genuine to DND

[raven bloom]

I dont remember the names of them...largely cause i didn't keep watching them
I love D20, but it often feels...manufactured in a way that CR doesnt because of the editing.
A lot of the ones WotC does has the same problem (in addition to the actual corporateness)

For me CR sits right at a comfortable point on the spectrum of slapped together and produced

[turbid juniper]

i don't think this is a matter of preference for me? i like both but for different reasons

d20's production works GREAT for the kinds of stories they tell, the players they have, and the length they keep them to

they're not TRYING to seem like an average table

[raven bloom]

I do think that's a better framing
What D20 does works well for what they want
But that style and the feel of it is not what id want from something like CR
For what CR is doing adding more editing would eat away at it for me

[turbid juniper]

i'm liking cr4 a LOT but historically where it would falter for me is indeed the "this feels like real people playing a game" because unless i'm a player myself, the table discussion and rp segments not being curtailed means they can go on, for a whiiiile, sometimes at same-y volume and tone that starts to melt into the bg and before i know it, i've been zoning out for the last ten minutes

[cold tartan]

I don’t want them to change much of the way they put together episodes, for me it’s just like they’re not live anymore! Yet the shortcomings that existed because they were live before still exist when they don’t have to

[red beacon]

I’ll be real, I think the crit role cast are wonderfully gifted artists but just judging from how they manage their DnD play, they don’t seem like super organized people or super good planners. Would not be surprised if that leaks into the business side of things

[red beacon]

CR works better for me when they do that though tbh, because I tend to listen either while commuting or while doing other things

I very seldom sit down and just watch crit role

[turbid juniper]

i think it loses me no matter what i'm doing

[elfin sigil]

D20 doesn't feel scripted to me at all

I've played many shorter form mini campaigns and they very commonly involve some amount of hand waving and on-the-spot GM thumb-on-the-scaling, simply because you don't have the time to play out many of the unanticipated consequences of PC behavior in a way that feels narratively satisfying in the shorter form

There are several seasons where I felt they'd have been much worse if it hadn't been for the RP chops of the players (including Brennan) and I'm fine with that, its the nature of that shorter form beast

[turbid juniper]

it doesn't feel scripted to me either

i think it's a consequence of brennan being as good and quick on his feet as he is

[elfin sigil]

Imma be honest, watching Brennan more-or-less live (or at least, unedited) in CR is

Not missing much!

I'm not the Um Police (I actually rather detest the Um Police) but Brennan has a half dozen filler phrases that he uses a ton in CR and quite a bit less in D20 (because they're presumably edited out) and if I never heard them again in my life I'd be fine

[red beacon]

“In this moment”

[swift edge]

buh, buh, buh

I love the little buh trio, tbh, it's such a unique little filler phrase

[halcyon wing]

“Right. Okay. Great”

[elfin sigil]

And of course the old faithful, "incredible"

Honestly I'm surprised I've not yet come across a compilation video called "Brennan Lee Mulligan Saying "Incredible"' For Forty-Eight Minutes and Twelve Seconds"

[ocean halo]

I would watch that video. his cadence on the word gives me life

[weak wedge]

"Um...Hell yeah, um..."

[halcyon wing]

M9 e7 || I just realized when Essek says “What could the empire have given you to justify treason?” - he is literally quoting the exact words Verrat said to him at the beginning of the episode ||

[swift edge]

M9 e7 ||I've seen a few different interpretations of why he might be saying that, but I feel like it's meant to be an answer to Verrat about how he could betray him like this. Reminding Verrat, why did he Essek originally justify treason? To save his mother, who is now beyond saving. And he blames Verrat for making his treason worthless now ||

[halcyon wing]

They are nailing the vibes with || Essek being kind of… I’ve come this far and am in too deep so it’s time to just lean into being this guy. ||

M9 general || I’m also loving how they are bringing out fjord and Molly’s stuff. The way they are juggling it all is impressive. ||

[solemn raft]

https://x.com/LVMandM9onPrime/status/2002159519351124396?s=20

The Mighty Nein and The Legend of Vox Machina (@LVMandM9onPrime)

A friendly reminder that The Traveler’s final gift comes early this year! 💙 🍭 ✨ Watch the season finale of #TheMightyNein this Monday, December 22.

X · Dec 19, 2025, 11:30 PM

ugh, can it be tomorrow already?

[woven abyss]

WHAT

Oh I've been procrastinating episode 7

I gotta lock in and catch up

[halcyon wing]

CR4 ep 10 prologue || wait the nobles are laying off the government army and hiring them as a private army… that’s what’s happening? Cool cool cool. ||

[halcyon wing]

The level up video is between episode 9 and 10 right?

[red beacon]

C4e9 ||ohhhhh it’s a rebellion of the nobility against the king||

||I like the amount of depth Brennan has put into the world, and the different groups in it||

||interesting setup with a liberal king vs a conservative aristocracy with the CC acting kind of like the way the Catholic Church did during the European revolutions||

[elfin sigil]

||Technically yes? I get the impression they're purging the old guard and replacing them under the guise of "professionalizing", and the old guard are leaving to go join mercenary companies||

[turbid juniper]

||right, but the mercenary companies picking them up seem to be house aligned - hence the special remark that the mercernary company Azune saw was aligned with or tight with the candescent creed||

[turbid juniper]

cr4 e10 all, okay, i watched the ending but now i've watched this episode again through and ||oh my god......... brennan is gunning for sam so hard.... there are so many in-world justified reasons for people to be going after wick....... i feel like sam invited this ||

same tags ||extremely generous with the nat 20 thing tbh, altogether, but i can live with that ||

cr4 e10 ||i do think now the only reason that there isn't a cooldown for this episode is because of the weird cut. was probably originally a big 6+ hour beast||

[red beacon]

M9e6 ||I cannot get over how essek is just sitting there passively being called racial slurs||

[solemn raft]

Mighty Nein e8||finally more Yasha||

Mighty Nein e8 ||okay so based on them explaining the heist before and the preview showing Beau in a dress, im gonna assume smth will mess the whole plan up. Also i just noticed Nott doesnt have her subclass yet, wonder when she'll get her Arcane Trickster stuff||

M9e8/C2 all||YES THE SUPER DELICIOUS GLITTER||

https://tenor.com/view/leonardo-dicaprio-rick-dalton-point-finger-pointing-hand-right-there-gif-20349799

[solemn raft]

M9e8||YES finally the red-haird asshole shows up||

[narrow bramble]

||She does they used message || m9

[solemn raft]

oh i thought that was a magic item

M9e8||oh hey Ikithon talking about ending all war and having a weapon so powerful noone would dare attack them. Man where have i heard that one before? A war to end all wars? Crazy idea man, lemme look at the early 20th century real quick, no relation||

M9e8||okay, was thinking the Kryn attack should happen at some point. Really cool fight scene, i like how M9 shows more magic compared to Vox Machina. Now Essek is captured by Trent, the Nein have the beacon and Yasha joined them. And then there's the ominous foreshadowing with Molly||

C2/M9 all|| i really like how much more they hint at Molly having a weird past but also the lil nods to his death. Him encouraging Jester and Nott before the heist, his comment "Is there any other way?" to Caleb's "Die in a blaze of glory?". They're really gonna twist the knife with it.||

[halcyon wing]

M9e8 || seriously!!!!! There?? That’s where they are ending it!!!

Loved how it played out but!!! I can’t wait! ||

M9e8 || Molly and Vess was great, the heist was great, Trent was great, Essek in action was great, Traveller was great…. I need more of this show.

Ending it with Yasha and her being freed by the beacon is also a fun way to introduce her to the group. ||

|| I’m gonna go watch the fight scene again||

Also m9 e8 / c2 all || Essek and Caleb’s first face to face 👀||

But || Caleb won’t know it’s him when they meet later because of the mask. essek will recognize Caleb though. ||

M9 e8 || dunamancy is so sexy. ||

[halcyon wing]

M9 e8 / c2 spoilers || also Vess is waking up in a clone box start of season 2 I guess? ||

[summer quarry]

JUST STARTED M9 e8 (treat replies as such for a bit :P) and it's very interesting that (m9e8 but also c2 full spoilers) ||they're leaning a bit into the Gentleman's fond exasperation with Jester. I wondered if they'd adapt that whole familial relationship, but this seems a big hint to yes||

[halcyon wing]

Okay I’m gonna watch the end of the episode one more time and then get to work

[summer quarry]

So, this is interesting because ||it seems it's poised to merge Lythir VaSuun into Essek as the Kryn that suspects the Nein of being spies or similar for the Empire, which would probably cause more issues|| (c2 spoilers)

[halcyon wing]

M9 ep 8 || the reversal of Yasha going from badass to begging for help is also so good. ||

[halcyon wing]

I definitely think (ep 8/c2) || A Lythir Essek merge is likely IMO (though Lythir doesn’t come up until the 9 cross the mountains I think). I think they can set it up in a way that is different enough to keep things along a similar path. ||

[halcyon wing]

Since we don’t know who was all involved || it actually is possible Essek was part of the raid, in which case the main change is Caleb being there. ||

[summer quarry]

Yeah, my point was more about how ||Instead of fighting Lythir across the mountains, they have Caleb conspicuously present where the beacon was held as Essek takes it, as the "Mighty Nein are colluding with the Empire" suspicion. Makes a lot of sense too. The Nein are a lot less agressive towards the Kryn in the show BUT Essek is a lot higher placed, so his suspicions carry more weight. So it evens out||

[halcyon wing]

Another big difference is || the M9 know what the beacon is and its significance to the war from the start.

Whereas in the campaign they have a lot less info and don’t really care about solving the war until they need to turn over the beacon to save themselves. ||

M9 season 2 spec / cr 2 spoilers || Now I’m thinking the M9 will head up through the Savalirwood on their path to the Kryn Empire, Molly stuff will happen, Nott reveal stuff happens, then they get into the Dynasty, and Fjord’s pirate arc might be layer?

Unless the aftermath of the Molly thing sets them back and they turn back and do the Fjord stuff? Maybe because they find the second ball up there? ||

[halcyon wing]

I’ve rewatched || the final fight scene|| so many times now

[elfin sigil]

I've been impressed with the season's pacing

[solemn raft]

yeah, i feel like they've been going fast without feeling rushed

[elfin sigil]

M9 show/campaign ||My default assumption was that the season was going go end on Molly's death, just for clean "what is Taliesin doing this season and how are we promoting it" reasons so I further assumed that stealing the beacon was going to fill a role similar to what they did with the Nydus compass in terms of pacing||

I'm glad they didn't do that, this is better

||I do think that makes pacing out next season kind of challenging, though, because Molly's death is kind of a natural break point and certainly a heavy emotional beat that will feel weird in what presumably will be the first ~third of next season||

[solemn raft]

i should look up a summary of campaign 2 i do not remember when what happens exactly

[solemn raft]

C2||i could've sworn Molly's death was decently far into the campaign, like a third of the way or so.||

[turbid juniper]

c2 ||it's like 20-some episodes in||

[elfin sigil]

||Episode 26 believe it or not||

[turbid juniper]

c2 ||i do in fact remember where and when and why i dipped lmao||

[solemn raft]

c2||i thought it would've been like 40 or so. wow||

[summer quarry]

I always found it fascinating how that happened

[elfin sigil]

M9/CR2||It happens so soon which is why I defaulted to that being the emotional beat they ended the season on. I think this prooooooobably works better for the show as a whole though||

[summer quarry]

c2 ALL ||In a way, one of the biggest emotional beats of the campaign and a setup for the overarching plot was spurred by... A poorly-timed pregnancy, a guest getting "too" in character, and a player that didn't really know (by his own admission) how to play his class for... Obvious reasons||

Wild to think about

[solemn raft]

c2||now i remember why i wasnt attached to Molly before, he was barely in the campaign ||

[halcyon wing]

M9 s2 speculation and c2 spoilers || If they move some stuff around (like some of the Yasha arc maybe) I could see Molly’s thing still being the season 2 finale ||

[solemn raft]

same tags||i think they'll have to if they wanna keep Yasha's reaction to Molly's death the same (and imo they should). In the campaign they had time before to bond and get close but now Yasha is joining when the party is already established so she'll need extra time to get closer to the rest||

[halcyon wing]

Same tags || could also bump up some of the Nott stuff or early dynasty stuff. I feel like they’d want to save the Fjord arc for after due to caduceus being more involved in that. ||

[summer quarry]

Same tags ||I do still think they'll have them known each other before yasha got mind controlled but could be well off||

[narrow bramble]

I doubt it they need some decompression after that

||So it looks like I was right they are gonna just cater to the back half and sacrifice the early stuff || m9 all

[narrow bramble]

||They wanted to “fix” the death so they need to establish him more which is fine. || c2 all

[summer quarry]

M9 s2 speculation, c2 spoilers all ||I do think making Molly's death a season finale will be a tricky thing because show onlies WILL take it as a "sequel hook" and expect a revival, especially after TLOVM. Wonder if they're trying to avoid that||

[swift edge]

M9 e8 ||Okay I have watched it now, but I need to go back and rewatch so I'm doing liveblog thoughts this time. I loooove the heist set up, who doesn't love a good heist. Beau going in as the fancy girl and Fjord's slutty reverse bunny-suit shirt under the jacket are both amazing. Also I love hearing Lou Wilson around as some NPCs here||

||Beau flirting with Astrid is amazing. Astrid was really sharp this episode too, like recognizing that Beau was part of the scheme and intervening, and their whole fight together was great. Also I guess Trent isn't keeping the Volstrucker secret anymore, since he's just attending this fancy party with two identically dressed shadowy bodyguards tailing him at all times. They didn't even dress up in formal wear to pretend to be guests, they're just out here in full clandestine agent mode, lol.||

||Traveler real! I had a feeling he was going to make an appearance before the end and catching Jester was a great little moment! He actually showed up! Good on Jester for punching him. ||

||Vess confronting Molly was badass, and I love how much we're getting about the eyes and the Nonagon this early. It does feel like they're giving Molly a lot more time to shine than he had at this point in the campaign. Really laying a lot of things in prep that I think are going to be cool to see weaved into the plot this early and paid off. ||

||Trent and Caleb's conversations, both via sending stone and then later in person, were SO good. The resentment, the possessiveness, the manipulation. The way Caleb can't entirely resist that desire to go back, aaaaaaaaaaaaa. ||

||The Kryn strike force is so sick, and seeing Trent go all out in the fight is amazing. Also Matt and I already talked about this lol, but the way Trent forcibly polymorphs Eadwulf and it looks like his tattoos kind of facilitate Trent putting that spell on him is SO Lanna Sioc, I love it so much. (also uwu essek meet-cute in the study) He is... honestly hotter beat up with a little blood on his face, because I am predictable. I guess Essek is in Trent's custody now? How is THAT going to play out?||

||The final bits with Fjord taking the eye in to unlock the darkvision invocation and then the beacon knocking Yasha out of Obann's control were also so good, like, every single one of the characters really got a big moment to shine. But also! THAT'S WHERE IT ENDS????||

Anyway season 2 comes out next week, right? please?

[halcyon wing]

M9 e8 and vague cR2 || I know he will somehow get away, but the idea of Essek being in Trent’s custody even temporarily is sending shivers down my spine.

At least Trent might hesitate to do too much since Essek still has valuable knowledge. But no way hot boi is getting away unscathed. ||

[elfin sigil]

LOVM was on a pretty good release pace and I expect M9 will be as well

[narrow bramble]

It should take longer tho becuase of episode length

[summer quarry]

Fewer episodes tho

Runtime is not too dissimilar

[solemn raft]

M9 e8||im predicting that Trent will try to use Essek as a barganing chip to get the beacon back or atleast try to squeeze some information out of him to know where the beacon is going.||

[swift edge]

M9 e8 ||If we get a scene of Essek as a prisoner (getting tortured/threatened by Trent to try to get more information out of him?) i will never be normal again||

[summer quarry]

implying you currently are

[swift edge]

listen, there's still hope of recovery right now, maybe

this would make me terminal for sure

[solemn raft]

i got bad news Feather, chances are high it will become terminal

[swift edge]

whooops

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[halcyon wing]

Apparently there’s a Sam Reigel fireside chat or interview comment implying a couple episodes are already done and release could be later 2026

[swift edge]

(m9, language)
I am in both of these pictures

[cold tartan]

M9 8 || I know they need some source of internal tension but like switching between we’re bffs at the end of the last episode to Caleb, Fjord, Not having a standoff is such a weird tonal shift. ||

[summer quarry]

m9 8 and campaign comparison of those scenes ||It's lifted almost direct from the campaign, FWIW. Caleb had found some very conspicuous spells he wanted to steal and Fjord took offense because it'd ruin the stealth and they argued almost the same as the show. As I recall Fjord didn't love the casual kleptomania and was always on edge of it ruining quests||

[cold tartan]

|| I remember the conflict but idk it feels so out of place here||

Also M9 all|| really wonder how the Yasha stuff plays to people who haven’t seen the stream because it feels really weird ||

|| like she has like 10 min of screen time in the season and then they end the season with her. so just kinda wondering what the vibe is if somebody doesn’t know what’s up ||

[elfin sigil]

M9 ||I wonder if she's as absent as she is in the show because of Brian Foster stuff that was happening around a year ago now||

[cold tartan]

There was more stuff?

[elfin sigil]

As I understand it the court stuff ended late last year

[cold tartan]

Oooooo I forgot about that part

[cold tartan]

C2 all || I went and looked up attendance and wow I forgot how much Ashley was not there in the first half of C2. Like up until episode 85 she’s really only there for a 3 month block once a year.||

[thorn python]

C2 ||part of it is that sometimes other players get to puppet yasha. So Ashley might be away filming, but Yasha is present and interacting with the story ||

[minor lantern]

Watching the last MN episode now. 🍿

Mn e8 ||Yasha lore ||

||Giving me blades in the dark vibes here.||

[minor lantern]

||Beau deception ||

||I think that sending was more than 25 words.||

Mn e8 ||Caleb 😐 ||

[thorn python]

C2 + m9 show ||what do we think are the odds of Molly dying without finding out the Traveler is real and Jester’s faith is justified?||

[minor lantern]

Mn e8 ||The Traveler ||

Mn e8 ||It's Fjord ||

||Not the dress ||

Mn e8 ||WAIT, IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE IRONMAN ESSEK?||

||I love how they are having Caleb use the spell component.||

||This fight is so cool.||

||I was right. 😎 ||

||That's where we end it? ||

[minor lantern]

Cr3 update for me, I am on episode 91 now, I got like 30 more episodes now.

[narrow bramble]

Nice that’s a doable catchup number

[elfin sigil]

The last chunk has some really solid momentum

[minor lantern]

Cr3e91 ||Chets dead ||

[elfin sigil]

Fun fact from the Beacon-exclusive segment of the behind the scenes for M9:
Sam Riegel and Peter Habib (the songwriter for LOVM and M9) were in a three piece band together in New York called Segway. Sam played the bass (which he hasn't played before or since), Peter played the congas, and their third member played the acoustic guitar. All three were lead singers and all of their music was three part harmony. They sang in Spanglish

[minor lantern]

Cr3e91 ||Ohdahan is taking out everyone ||

||A SUPREME HEALING POT? ||

[minor lantern]

Cr3e91 ||Fcg is sacrificing himself :O||

Cr3e91 ||😭||

[halcyon wing]

Amazon Prime has m9 pfps

The speed at which I applied the Essek one

[solemn raft]

okay this is probably gonna sound like realy stupid but i rewatched episode 8 and Trents voice actor is Mark Strong

That's this guy, he has been in multiple hollywood movies and stuff. How the heck do they get these big names for their show???

they got Nathan Fillion too, who the f is their casting director???

[halcyon wing]

Sam Reigel does casting I think

The benefits of being in the industry and connected I guess?

I know Sam probably used his Disney connections to get some of the former Disney actors

[thorn python]

Also sometimes it sounds like people ask them to be considered

Apparently Brent Spiner wants in, and he mentioned this to Johnathan Frakes after Frakes had a minor part

[halcyon wing]

Yeah I saw that in the fireside chat

[thorn python]

I assume they got Frakes via Will Wheaton

[weak wedge]

You forget: CR is a group of legitimate VAs. Remember: Matt Mercer was GANONDORF in Tears of the Kingdom. They can pull in big names because they are big names

[halcyon wing]

CR4 EP 10 || Thimble is a monster. ||

|| I love her ||

[thorn python]

https://www.tumblr.com/keperaz/803216225055424512/just-a-wizard-and-his-cat

guy zone

just a wizard and his cat

-# #fanart #critical role #caleb widogast #m9 animated #the mighty nein #tm9 #frumpkin #cr2

Tumblr · Dec 17, 2025, 9:24 PM

Also I just wanna say that they have been drawing that cat so weird all season. They gotta recruit a former warrior cats fan for the next season because the horses look fine but that is not how cats looks

[elfin sigil]

Sam is also literally an Emmy award winning director

You wanna spend like four hours in a booth, have it be a good time, and get paid high-in-band or even out of band high for the pleasure? Seems like kind of a slam dunk gig tbh

[plucky ibex]

M9 ||This hurts and I'm not okay 🙃||

[plucky ibex]

I remember watching an interview with Sam where he was talking about how they would have loved to get Lucy Liu for the Bright Queen and then they just asked and she said yes and they were not expecting it to actually work. I can imagine that happening for a lot of people in their 'dream cast'. Me still trying to get over David Tennant being in LoVM

[thorn python]

You don’t get what you don’t ask for

[red beacon]

Please god make this happen

He should get to have some fun after being Data over a decade

[cold tartan]

They had david indira varma and Stephanie Beatriz for VM too

[red beacon]

David Tennant ?

[thorn python]

He always had so much fun playing Lore

https://tenor.com/view/little-man-prepare-to-die-gif-23352063

[raven bloom]

Also like, a lot of these actors are themselves enormous geeks who jump at the chance to do something different and fun

[plucky ibex]

Yeah, he did General Krieg

I didn’t realize till watching a video that went through most of the VA’s they used for the first (?) season.

[red beacon]

It gave him a chance to flex his joy and whimsy

[solemn raft]

I forgot that lmao

[thorn python]

m9 finale cremposting ||https://www.tumblr.com/glitchedlaika/803670906623967232/mighty-nein-animated-spoilers-wizard-fight-but ||

normal about things and stuff

mighty nein animated spoilers. wizard fight but sexyback plays whenever essek is there. have fun...

▶ Play video

Tumblr · Dec 22, 2025, 9:51 PM

[acoustic escarp]

Episodes 9 and 10 were awesome. I love Thimble, who is probably the most OP character at their table. Laura Bailey had incredible rolls. And for once, Travis was rolling terribly. 😂

[narrow bramble]

||I’m not sure I’d call her op. Rogue has a low floor. But will also be volatile. But I think the rest of the table needs more time to understand how their characters work || c4 all

[red beacon]

||rogue peaks early, but thimble having flight is consistently good||

[narrow bramble]

I’m a notorious flight hater

I don’t think it’s as good as the general public

Also rogues don’t really peak early. The peak at level 7 but are pretty level throughout

Flight is the only species ability I know that has killed multiple pc’s in games I’ve played or seen

[minor lantern]

Cr3e91 ||The other half? ||

[thorn python]

7 out of 20

[bleak sparrow]

Liking campaign 4 quite a lot

Certainly prefer Brennan's serious railroad to Matt's open playing field of goofiness

I'm sure Matt is nicer to play with but Brennan is better to watch

[narrow bramble]

Nobody in dnd really considers that early. If you peaked past anything after 10 you’re not really super playable . Tier 1 and tier 2 are majority of the time in games and that’s mid way through tier 2.

The big power spikes are usually 3,5,11

[elfin sigil]

What makes you call Brennan railroady? I'm not opposed to a little railroad now and again but I'm also not sure I'd use that term to describe how campaign 4 has played out past the Overture episodes

CR4 soldiers ||Among other things, he had several ways north into Timmany planned, and those ways could have jumped into each other if the table had played things differently. The first castle fight was also pretty sandboxy in terms of the options they were given in approaching it||

[bleak sparrow]

Ig a better word would be focused but things like C4 ||Occtis' fate|| is hard not to see as railroaded

But I enjoy the fact that he is this way in most cases

[elfin sigil]

||That's why I say past the Overture. Alex actually had pitched playing a Hollow One to Brennan and Brennan asked if they could just do that during the Overture instead of having it as backstory. Even then, if Marisha hadn't used her nat 20 from Divination when she did, Brennan would have killed Occtis||

Do you have access to Cool Down?

[bleak sparrow]

I just watch on YT

Ik a lot of people enjoy Critical Role with the goofiness but I find it a detractor so I'd say Whitney has been the least enjoyable aspect of the campaign so far

[elfin sigil]

I do try and put Cool Down stuff here because there's some interesting tidbits about how Brennan is managing things behind the scenes, and they've dodged some very real Crown of Candy level shots he's taken at them

[cold tartan]

but… || Dr. Jizz Finger||

[bleak sparrow]

My reactions were similar to Brennan's

[cold tartan]

I do appreciate it when you do btw

[bleak sparrow]

Unfortunate

[elfin sigil]

Whitney's grown on me somewhat

[bleak sparrow]

I'm one of those weirdos who genuinely enjoy putting characters through the wringer

[bleak sparrow]

Hated her on ep 1, started to like her but then the recent shenanigans happened

[elfin sigil]

She's also apparently very much the newest-to-D&D player at the table, and so I'm willing to forgive a lot of her newer player tendencies

I like that her instinct is to take the biggest swing possible, which while it doesn't always work out is preferable to the opposite instinct imo

[bleak sparrow]

I don't even like to give my own PCs nice lives or ends

[elfin sigil]

And Brennan's more than skilled enough a DM to deal with new player big swings

[bleak sparrow]

I'm playing a very JRPG campaign right now in Fabula Ultima

All my party members are spunky young adults in their 20s

And I'm playing a 42 year old tired guy just wanting to get to his wife

[cold tartan]

I like that she asks to try things

[bleak sparrow]

I absolutely don't mind that of course

I just could have done with everything about Dr Finger

Especially given how Wic has been developing

[elfin sigil]

I don't love goofiness gratias goofiness much myself but I do appreciate that Whitney is at least pointed in a direction, and that she's being given the space to try things for herself

Biggest turnoff for me would be if it felt like someone (to include even Brennan here) talked to Whitney behind the scenes and told her to rein it in and she just became boring and stiff for the rest of the campaign

[bleak sparrow]

I think there are enough players at the table for me but that's also an incredibly selfish line of thought

So I'll drop it

I however also don't see Whitney dropping her antics anytime soon so I'll have to suffer through that

[elfin sigil]

She isn't my favorite right now but she has grown as a player somewhat already and I'm excited to see her continue to do so

Marisha wasn't my favorite player for much of CR1 either and now she's one of my favorites, for example. Player growth is always exciting to see and I'd hate to see that stifled

[turbid juniper]

oh I LOVE Whitney

I love how bold she's being, I love her swings

if not for her unfamiliarity with some mechanics, I wouldn't have thought she was a new player at all

and re mechanics, she's clearly been reading her kit and just needs a couple pointers here and there

[elfin sigil]

It wasn't even that, her mechanics aren't far enough everyone else's in the confusion due to the conversion to 2024 that I was sure she was newer

There was some other tell and I can't even remember what it was now

[narrow bramble]

General roll knowledge like profiency

[elfin sigil]

I'd guess they specifically chose her in part because she's not got an extensive background and that I'm 100000% in favor of

[red beacon]

my take on rogues is that they are best in comparison to other classes at lower levels

so in that sense they "peak early"

but that's an issue all martial classes have

but also i think teor and kat getting extra attack will make thimble less op in comparison

[woven abyss]

Has there been any word on if/when legend of vox machina or mighty nein might get DVD or physical media releases?

[red beacon]

I kind of like the wic and tyranny dynamic in that I think it gives wic a chance to shine, but a lot of Whitney’s roleplay is mildly funny and really irritating

[bleak sparrow]

Yeah

She does feel necessary to contrast with and really highlight Wic

But her extra-ness also spills over the table

For me at least

[turbid juniper]

I've seen Sam Riegel be Way Too Much for years

it's not different

in fact, Whitney is far more willing to pull things in and be team player than Sam, easily

[minor lantern]

C4 ||I do think the thing about the fort and who's gonna keep it was a bit railroady, he seemed to push the topic hard.

Not that it was bad, but it seemed like he did want something to happen with it, it to be solved.||

[cold tartan]

|| honestly it felt like he kept implying that they should keep it and they were just like nah||

[minor lantern]

||Yeah ||

[elfin sigil]

||Which to me is kind of the opposite of a railroad. And honestly its an important question for the Hounds to be asking, they're looking for a legalistic way out and the party wasn't really giving them one||

||You don't want to leave a keep, even a bad one, unclaimed for bandits to hermit crab into||

[cold tartan]

|| yeah and they’re squishy and about to go fight more powerful enemies and Sam paid them already and I was just screaming “GIVE THEM THE ARMOR AND THEN TAKE THEM ALONG”||

My reactions are probably in here somewhere

[cold tartan]

|| like I don’t know how much obvious he could be than the knights being like “damn this is some really nice armor on these dead guys. What I wouldn’t give to have this armor.”||

||And they’re like “yeah it is nice armor… who can we give this castle too”||

C4 all

[red beacon]

Wic is the first Sam character I liked

Nott in the game drove me nuts

[plucky ibex]

I’ve been getting exactly this just from campaign 4

Loving Whitney so far but Sam has grated on me

[bleak sparrow]

True ig from what I've seen in the VM show but this is my first proper campaign so my experience is limited

I do think Sam is awesome in this one and Calamity

But Scanlan is by far my least fav VM member and I fully disliked him pre s3

[minor lantern]

I am a Sam enjoyer myself.

[red beacon]

Sam’s style of play usually doesn’t work for me because it’s borderline metagaming to be less efficient

[elfin sigil]

Sam generally really grates on me early on and then starts working for me whenever the "reason" for his schtick is revealed

Which is why Scanlan never works for me, since he is just... Scanlan

Fortunately, Brennan isn't pulling his punches with Sam just so Sam can do his goofy thing so he's sort of being shepherded away from that playstyle

[minor lantern]

I really like Sam because he commits to the bit.

[raven bloom]

Did Liam pick Sam's race and class for him again this time?

[elfin sigil]

I don't think so

[narrow bramble]

He usually does

[bleak sparrow]

Sam is knee deep into the worldbuilding this time

He apparently sent Brennan a dozen page long document on his character's religion with proverbs and commandments from different scriptures and stuff

And I am not finding Wic goofy

In fact I think he's had the most main character energy (positive) so far

[red beacon]

Sam is actually committed this time and Wic is a lot more serious than his previous characters

I also actually really like animated Nott

[bleak sparrow]

Yeah

Idk much about C3

But I always seem to love Liam and Tal's characters

Moreso Tal's ideas and dialogue and Liam's performance

Liam is such a master of intense scenes

[elfin sigil]

I think part of Sam's schtick generally is that he pretends to not be committed only to reveal late in the game that he is quite committed, and Brennan isn't leaving room for that first bit here

[red beacon]

Caleb is by far Liam’s best character but he has a tendency to talk too much

Which ||Hal|| definitely seems to do

[narrow bramble]

I wouldn’t say that was true for the middle two characters

[red beacon]

I also think that some of Nott’s antics were extremely annoying, maybe in character but nevertheless extremely annoying

[narrow bramble]

I loved Nott

[red beacon]

I did not like ||her alcoholism||

[narrow bramble]

Out of everyone’s faults in C2 it really doesn’t matter to me

Personally Travis is the only one I think I’ve liked everyone of his characters. Then most have 1 I did not like.

[cold tartan]

I probs would’ve liked his character in c3 except it was || a stupid blood hunter ||

[red beacon]

I think Jester was by far the most annoying c2 character but nott was a close second

[red beacon]

I am really sad that they’re kinda not focusing on Fjord as much or making him less “in charge” because I think campaign Fjord was the undisputed “main hero” or leader of C2, and he was honestly my fav

[narrow bramble]

Im gonna guess you like Ashton

[narrow bramble]

I think fjord was pretty boring for a long while

Tbh but he was still good

[red beacon]

I have not watched enough c3 to make a decision lol

Tbh I kinda didn’t like any of the c3 characters except Orym

And also ||Fearne|| genuinely drove me nuts

I cannot describe in words the hatred I felt for ||her stupid monkey||

[minor lantern]

I honestly dislike Taliesin and Ashley's characters. For some reason they all feel like the same to me.

[red beacon]

Tal is hit and miss

He’s pretty pretentious at times

I feel like it worked out sort of for Molly and Cad

Ashley is kinda just bad at roleplay and also bad at combat

[bleak sparrow]

When it comes to performances I think Bo is the worst in the show

She's very casual and anachronistic

[elfin sigil]

I like Beau

The college-educated punk thing works for me and I don't really think the modern world owns that idea

[narrow bramble]

I like beau later but it took her 40 or so episodes to get it to work

[red beacon]

C2 ||Beau got a lot better once she stopped thinking she was the boss||

||she works very well as Fjords second in command/ Lancer but early Beau was super annoying||

[narrow bramble]

The big difference between the show and the liveplays is they let beau be correct way more than she was in the liveplay a lot of her deductions were hot garbage and led to needless conflict

[red beacon]

C2 ||i will say that i did not like how Beau’s story with her dad was resolved||

||I think Beau was straight up in the wrong lmao||

[bleak sparrow]

It's not that

I don't mind what she is of course, that's cool

I just mind how she speaks

"Bro" "cringe" "hot stuff"

No one else uses terms this modern

[minor lantern]

I am guessing you weren't a fan of WaT then.

[bleak sparrow]

Loathe it

TWOK is my fav piece of fiction btw

[elfin sigil]

It doesn't bother me as a tool to communicate what kind of person she is any more than Caleb's German is a tool to communicate something about Caleb

[raven bloom]

I just got done rewatching, they definitely do

[elfin sigil]

Certainly Jester does, in her own way

She ain't speaking fantasyese, that's for sure

[red beacon]

Same

[red beacon]

M9 + C2 ||also my one wish for season 2 is that we get more fjord focus. C2 is a collaborative campaign but it really is Fjord who is the leader and the thing binding the team together for most of the campaign. Beau is too abrasive and headstrong, Caleb is too naturally paranoid and has a tendency towards borderline evil, Molly is too irresponsible and too dead for most of the campaign… I really liked the bits of Fjord we got but he didn’t feel center stage enough in the animated series and I think it hurts the team cohesion when Fjord isn’t actively taking the leader role||

[bleak sparrow]

Maybe it's just me not having done the campaign but

I think I like the ensemble format more

[swift edge]

Cr2 ||I don't really think I ever thought of Fjord as the main character of CR2 at all. Like if you tried to ask me who was the main character in the Nein, I doubt he'd even make my top three guesses||

Cr2 ||I'm definitely biased, but I do feel like the show is leaning a lot more into Caleb's main character energy, which I think works best because he's got the deepest backstory connections and future narrative arcs with the main villains here. I don't really see a reason why Fjord in the center of the formation would work here, but I like what the show is doing focusing on his cowardice and insecurity as the things he's struggling with most||

[elfin sigil]

CR2 ||The only long term reason I could see for leaning into any Fjord main character energy is that he is the only character (who lives) in the M9 who leans heavily into the old god thing and that continues to be important right to the very end||

[raven bloom]

CR2 ||In as much as the M9 have one, id say the leader role basically winds up shared between Fjord, Beau, and Caleb. And who has priority changes depending on the situation and goal.||

[red beacon]

C2 ||Caleb is the most compelling character of the nine for me, based on backstory, but the issue was that him and Beau were pulling in different directions especially at the start and it was Fjord who made them come together as a team||

||I also do think Fjords arc of genuinely growing into a leader is genuinely really compelling||

[elfin sigil]

CR2 ||Imma be honest for me the only "leadership" elements for Fjord for me were the at-sea stuff and the Jester wanting him to be "the leader" vs Nott wanting Caleb to be "the leader" thing, not a whole lot else as far as innate leadership went||

||If anything, I felt like the running meme about leadership in M9 is that there was no obvious leader of M9||

[thorn python]

C2 || https://www.tumblr.com/twicetolivetwicetodie/804222272092143616 ||

#SaveWheelofTime

🔁 exandrianpunk

yeah yeah veths a lil prone to infidelity and essek did that treason thing whatever what we as a fandom need to do is cancel jester lavvore for animal neglect

Tumblr · Dec 28, 2025, 11:55 PM

[swift edge]

Watching Danny Motta's reaction to M9 e5 on my second screen and I just realized he's wearing a Windrunner shirt

[ocean halo]

I watched that yesterday and did a double take. Caused me to finally notice the leatherbounds on his shelf

[raven bloom]

I think he's talked about reading Brandon in passing here and there over the years

[raven bloom]

...i never noticed them xD

[narrow bramble]

I really don’t like their stuff very much but that has been an intresting watch

[weak wedge]

CR4 e7 1:33 ||"The world's biggest a-hole just became in charge of one of the sh?!?iest places I know" pffffttthahahaha 🤣||

[summer quarry]

came across the clip again and I just wanna say

C2 all ||I deeply need the Mighty Nein show to include the awkward dinner with trent where everyone is ragebaiting him and the volstruckers into insanity||

[cold tartan]

m9 and C2 || I think you’ll get a scene of it. But I wish we still were in a tv system where there were more episodes because dedicating a whole episode to the dinner and just vibing would be fun ||

[narrow bramble]

I think theres zero chance we don't get it

[swift edge]

I am just very hungry for more M9 content and in the absence of new episodes, reaction videos are filling the gap

[cold tartan]

rewatch c2

What did anybody else hear that?

[swift edge]

...i need to catch up with c4 still 😅

[narrow bramble]

if it wasn't like 160 hours to watch the first 40 i absolutely would

[cold tartan]

Lowkey I think the condensed episodes they do for c3 (haven’t seen them so idk the quality) are a fantastic idea

If they’re good then it makes catching up so much easier

[weak wedge]

Same lol

[elfin sigil]

I would absolutely not be surprised if they dedicate a full 45min episode to this actually

I'd almost be more surprised if they didn't

It is fairly loadbearing imo

[narrow bramble]

More importantly it covers exactly the material they are heightening in this version and involves their favorite moments

[raven bloom]

C2+M9 all ||Hell they've been hitting Trent's pain philosophy from the jump||

[hearty glacier]

Are there catch up write ups anywhere?

Im on break so wanted to watch some CR4 but I was like 2/3 of the way through episode 2 apparently

And that was the week it came out so ive forgotten a lot

At this point id probably prefer to just read an episode 2 summary and go to 3

[cold tartan]

On the site

https://critrole.com/tag/critical-recap/

[hearty glacier]

Sick thanks

[narrow bramble]

||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PahRNpM9mSw||C2

im so sad we won't get to see this scene animated in the show

[halcyon wing]

I feel like I we got several elements from that scene spread out and packaged in different ways. But it is too bad to lose some of those magic table scenes

[thorn python]

https://www.tumblr.com/vasira96/798982118528172032/someone-in-the-tags-said-thimble-should-make-a

you like art?

someone in the tags said Thimble should make a little hammock on Tyranny's horns and then i blacked out and now i have this

-# #vasira arts #fanart #cr4 #critical role #cr thimble #cr tyranny

Tumblr · Nov 1, 2025, 3:45 AM

[cold tartan]

C4 all ||On reflection it’s really weird to put a month break in between two episodes which were prob from 1 split session. ||

[elfin sigil]

That was the vibe I caught immediately

Everything about this is weird imo

Pacing is my biggest concern with this because if they want to give all or even just most characters the amount of development they normally do in a campaign even cutting out the BS they're probably on track for a 200+ episode campaign and taking off a week every month and a month every year for the holidays just... the episdoes themselves are fine but the rollout pacing is just glacial

[cold tartan]

Yuuuuup if every arc is 12 episodes (it doesn’t have to be it just makes the math easy) that’s 4 months/arc! meaning you have 8 months in between returning to the others!

[elfin sigil]

Doesn't help that they finished CR3 in February and didn't start CR4 until October

It was like eight and a half months

And like sure Age of Umbra was in there and that was fine, justified the sub at least, they weren't doing nothing

[cold tartan]

And like I understand that their revenue generation is probably pretty independent of people actually watching the show so like they can take a month off in between subscription renewal periods (cough what they’re doing now)

Or idk have a table that some people won’t find as interesting or they’ll get busy and just stay subbed even though they might not be watching

[cold tartan]

Honestly their lack of other stuff is why I don’t sub

[elfin sigil]

My suspicion is that it has to do with the ads

Especially this January lull

[cold tartan]

-# And also every review in the iTunes Store was like “love the show but boy this app is garbage” and I watch on an iPad so….

[elfin sigil]

The app is a lot better than it was even a year ago, for whatever that's worth to you

I do use the app to listen when I'm driving/working

Which is to say, I absolutely agree that it has problems even now, but it is baseline usable and it wasn't a year ago

[cold tartan]

I still have a twitch sub through prime and they’re the only stream I watch. They’d have to have stuff that like makes the extra money worth it

Or just stop using twitch which I’m kinda surprised they still do considering they’re down at like 8k viewers vs like 100k plus when I was last watching

[cold tartan]

Do you mean that nobody wants to sponsor rn?

[elfin sigil]

Or that sponsorships are a little slow and they don't want to do any episodes without sponsorship when they could be working other projects

[cold tartan]

I could see that. Especially since they don’t need to run anything to get paid now

Like I doubt the churn is that high given… the level of investment needed to sub to them on their own platform prob means people are a lot less interested in unsub

[elfin sigil]

By all accounts Marisha is always overwhelmed, Travis is CEO and is heavily involved in the animated show, Sam has cancer and is heavily involved in the animated show, etc etc etc

[thorn python]

Sounds like they need more overhead staff

[elfin sigil]

That'd help Marisha out for sure

I'm not sure they can or want to offload the actual CEO gig to someone not one of them, and I think they're probably right to do so

Nor do I think they can offload the creative decisionmaking for VM and M9 to someone else who wasn't there either

And of course they can't offload Sam's cancer

[raven bloom]

Sam is in recovery iirc which, thank god

[thorn python]

I’m sure they’d love to

[elfin sigil]

Absolutely

As I understand it you're considered "in remission" for at minimum five years before being declared "cancer free" though and during that time you're still making a lot of doctor's visits just to make sure it doesn't come back

[raven bloom]

yeah def

[red beacon]

I had a brief free beacon subscription and their website is absolute ass

It should not be this hard to make a functional video player

[elfin sigil]

In a post-Flash world? Probably harder than you'd imagine

[cold tartan]

nods in how god awful the Hulu app is

[bleak sparrow]

I just wish the warriors would lock the hell in

I'd have, and have, said just one person was the main deterrent but from ep 9 everyone but Thimble has been goofy ahh

[elfin sigil]

Thimble has also kicked a lot of ass

[thorn python]

Me looking at the sheer number of books written by Erin Hunter

[turbid juniper]

sometimes it's the dice, sometimes this is playing dnd at a table with some funny people

[elfin sigil]

Okay most recent Fireside Chat confirms that Wick is not a character created by Liam

He says he still might do it, he considers it tabled, and he felt really guilty about it

[cold tartan]

Doing what?

[elfin sigil]

The Liam character he tabled

[cold tartan]

Oh

[elfin sigil]

Liam pitched him one and he decided against it

[thorn python]

Depends on if Tyranny can or wants to keep her pet priest alive

[elfin sigil]

Yep

[thorn python]

I adore whatever those two have going on

A new toxic dynamic all their own 😍

[elfin sigil]

Sam is giving Whitney an absolute trial by fire

[raven bloom]

their interactions on twitter send me

[bleak sparrow]

TW: Very NSFW with explicit nudity and suggestive material

||https://www.instagram.com/p/DTHP4Lnjb_v/||

dead.people.tea

Coming soon to the Critical Role Sho-
(Post credit to TweetneyMoore and samriegel on twitter!)
#criticalrole #criticalrolecampaign4 #criticalroletyrrany #araman #wicanderhalovar

Likes

277

Instagram

ok yeah that tonally fits Whitney/Tyranny then

the dice have different plans for Wick though though I'm sure Sam is joking

[woven abyss]

Finally catching up on M9

1x7 all thoughts / bits of C2 all ||I find it interesting how willing the group was to split - makes them feel a little less heroic, I reckon. I wonder if we'll see the traveller at all 🤔 I like the shuffling of pairings (letting us get a fjord/beau and nott/jester duo). Essek is just getting worse and that's very fun - though I love how like... his plan has currently ended up with both his mother and best friend dead. Is this really worth continuing xD? And as someone who's very interested in Molly's whole deal, its cool to see that getting a whole lot of set up in season 1||

[swift edge]

M9 sorta ||I had a dream that I was Essek and I think this means I'm thinking about this show too much||

[thorn python]

No I think it means you’re thinking about it the correct amount

[woven abyss]

c2/m9 1x8 ||ooh I love how much molly's past is being set up||

||god literally nothing is going to plan xD||

||i love that the two volstruckers were worried about where trent was. Meanwhile trent ran off to go sneak attack caleb||

Is it just me or did the animation get even better this episode?

1x8/lovm all ||is this another travis "evil strength evil sword" character lol||

Good finale

[thorn python]

It’s normal to save the budget for finales, cool fight scenes, tense emotional moments etc

[woven abyss]

Makes sense

[thorn python]

https://www.tumblr.com/patopq/805035068997468160/lmaoooo

Ja hallo

LMAO

-# #mighty nein #critical role #sam riegel #m9a #m9 animated #twitter stuff #caleb widogast

Tumblr · Jan 6, 2026, 11:14 PM

[mild creek]

Finally, finally have the time to catch back up

[minor lantern]

Cr3 ep 94/CR2 || It's hot Boi!||

[bleak sparrow]

Does TTRPG liveplay get any better than the Calamity finale

I am in shock

I am in such utter shock

I need a movie yesterday

[elfin sigil]

Yes. The Divergence finale

[cold tartan]

Yes the c2 episode 94???? || the muffin||

[elfin sigil]

The animated shows have made a point of including callbacks to Calamity not present in the orignial liveplays

[elfin sigil]

No no no, Divergence is the one after Bell's Hells

There's a third

[cold tartan]

But there’s no ||muffin in that one. Wait is there a muffin in that one??????||

[elfin sigil]

No, there isn't

Divergence all ||I mean Brennan's love letter rug pull on Matt||

[cold tartan]

Also idk how much of my memory of that is influenced by just the live vibes

[cold tartan]

I still haven’t seen it and have been distracted the last month from CR

I was gonna finally rewatch calamity

[elfin sigil]

Watch Divergence

It is incredible

[untold crystal]

I think in it's whole I like Calamity more, but the ending of Divergence is indeed something uniquely special

[bleak sparrow]

When is it on the timeline?

[elfin sigil]

End of the Calamity

[bleak sparrow]

And Downfall?

[elfin sigil]

Middle of the Calamity

To be more clear, Downfall is middle-end, sets the table for how it ends, and Divergence is more the aftermath

[cold tartan]

Wait which is the one that was mid c3 and which was the one that was like a special

Not including calamity

[elfin sigil]

Downfall

Was mid CR3

[cold tartan]

They’re all Brennan though right

[elfin sigil]

Divergence is a special

Yeah

Kind of a trilogy

[bleak sparrow]

So do I need to do Downfall for Divergence?

Also what was the original ExU about

[elfin sigil]

Don't have to, the trilogy is very loose

But its good!

Downfall makes less sense without the immediate context of CR3 imo though

[cold tartan]

Oh god the crown keepers

[untold crystal]

yeah, did they even call Downfall an ExU or not ?

[cold tartan]

C3 || they never should’ve brought characters over smh ||

[untold crystal]

or is it just a C3 interlude?

[elfin sigil]

Its episdoes of CR3

[untold crystal]

yeah

k, I remember it right then

[elfin sigil]

Regular, numbered episodes

[untold crystal]

I also always thought of them as a trilogy and was a bit surprised Downfall wasn't 'officially' ExU

[cold tartan]

Crit Role branding at it again

[elfin sigil]

I don't know that there was a good solution there

[cold tartan]

They could’ve just called it specials or something

[halcyon wing]

I would watch Calamity, Downfall, Divergence in that order, and I think Downfall would be fine without C3. If you are spoiler adverse you might want to skip the intro parts before Brennan locks in? I can’t remember if there were some spoilers there or not.

Calamity was the best overall for me, but there are aspects of Downfall I really love, and it is some of my fave moments of the trilogy. Divergence was less my cup of tea but still worth watching I think.

[weak wedge]

||Matt: crying 🖕
Brennan, smugly: "gotchya"||

[lethal valley]

Downfall totally works without watching C3! (as someone who warched it without having watched C3...)

[minor lantern]

So when we getting new episodes?

[bleak sparrow]

This week

[bleak sparrow]

What are some other great actual play miniseries like ExU Calamity/Divergence?

Preferably similar in tone too

[minor lantern]

This week? 🎉

[bleak sparrow]

Just setting some expectations for ExU Divergence so ig Divergence all

Does it ||just take place during the end of the Calamity or is the thing that puts an end to the Calamity||?

[halcyon wing]

Divergence || is kind of like the epilogue. It’s the end of the Calamity leading up to the divergence. So the end of the calamity is kind of to the side if that makes sense, and the PCs are more navigating the aftermath, stumbling into some stuff around the divergence happening. || tried my best to give vibes without specific spoilers.

[bleak sparrow]

I have no idea what Divergence is then lol

[elfin sigil]

For what its worth, I think that Brennan chose to take a very interesting tack with Divergence that contradicts nothing Mercer ever said about the event while also being a less... mythologized interpretation of it

[cold tartan]

Gonna be really weird if they’re back for 2 weeks and then take the 29th off

[cold tartan]

Calamity general || okay can we just get a spin off one shot of Travis’s character solving some crimes ||

Calamity and Matt’s world in general || okay which planet do they need to destroy so that there are no more apogee solstices||

[weak wedge]

Yo??? VLDL is on the CR service?!? Holy heck that value just skyrocketed

[bleak sparrow]

I've actually seen very little of Matt's DMing compared to Brennan and someone who only got into CR with C4

Is he as consistently gory as Brennan

Cause Brennan seems very graphic and dramatic all the time

While I've heard Matt is a bit lighter

I do like the tone of ExU and C4 a lot more than the Vox Machina show

Even M9, but I like M9 unlike VM

[elfin sigil]

Brennan is usually much lighter

He goes for maximum intensity on CR specifically

[bleak sparrow]

C4 has been very intense

I mean his intensity is why I love his CR stuff so much

[narrow bramble]

C4 is more intense then usual cr

[bleak sparrow]

https://tenor.com/view/thats-why-hes-the-goat-the-goat-bigfellerjake-skippe-space-i-think-gif-26908844

[elfin sigil]

I do think in long-term retrospect the overture will probably be remembered as notably higher-than-average relative to the rest of the show, I think to some extent that's already true

Average is still higher than Matt's campaigns but but a lot less I think if you drop the Overture from the equation

[narrow bramble]

I think the main reason this will be higher is the time Brennan is given. I don’t think he’s doing weekly prep which is huge in being able to prepare.

The format change is I think a bigger change than anything else

[elfin sigil]

I'm actually not sure what you mean

Brennan has more time to prep, because he's not tied to a strict weekly schedule, or he has less time to prep because he's doing several episodes in relatively short sequence that are then disbursed weekly?

[narrow bramble]

Former.

Matt always had to have something for next week gives him less time to think long term

[cold tartan]

C4 all || did I imagine that during e10 they said that 11 was gonna be the final episode for the soldiers table this rotation?||

[elfin sigil]

That's true. Matt definitely had moments where he was like "okay gang time for a filler arc centered around [PC]" and I don't think Brennan is going to be able or honestly terribly interested in doing that

[mighty yoke]

||Based on where their story is I wouldn’t be surprised, but since it’s been a month since I listened to it I don’t remember for sure ||

[bleak sparrow]

E10 was literally a single combat scene

[cold tartan]

|| like I could’ve sword Brennan said it in one of his recorded cut aways ||

But the transcript isn’t even up for some reason

[cold tartan]

Calamity 2 || FIREWORKS EXTRAVAGANZA ||

[elfin sigil]

https://tenor.com/view/fireworks-colorful-celebrate-lights-gif-17792117

[cold tartan]

https://tenor.com/view/patrick-beautiful-gif-18014783

I really do enjoy how much more focused calamity and like the overture are

Also shout out to the coppermind and the time machine because I would love to have that to look up what we knew about this time period at broadcast

[cold tartan]

Calamity 2 || Really not feeling Luis’s character far. Very gullible, yet very convicted in his analysis of the world. Hail satan but also screw the gods! Feel like he and Sam are the least clear characters rn and that’s because Sam keeps nailing deceptions. Remember thinking this the first time I watched he’d too. ||

|| he’s supposed to be a protector of the city but also hates it||

[bleak sparrow]

Bit tangential but the moment VM S3 died for me was when ||Pike threw away her amulet cause "the power was inside me all along and I don't need no stupid goddess or armour!"||

So juvenile and Reddit atheist-y

[elfin sigil]

VM show/M9 ||I read it more as a sort of ex post facto justification for Jester being a cleric, since M9 plays with some of the same ideas. Jester under 99% of circumstances should be a Warlock, but she's not pacted to Artagan, it is her devotion to and faith in him that gives her cleric magic||

[bleak sparrow]

Halfway through Divergence 1

It's just not as grabbing as Calamity

The situation is desperate on paper but the players don't feel like it

Which is odd when you have Matt Mercer and Liam O'Brien on tow

[elfin sigil]

https://tenor.com/view/its-been84years-titanic-rose-dawson-gif-5372593

After a whole ass month it is finally Thursday yet

[cold tartan]

I have exactly 2 hours and 29 min left on this calamity episode

Meaning there’s no way I’m finishing it before the new episode

Yup already had to rewind

[minor lantern]

I forgot until I saw your post.

[cold tartan]

I did not finish the calamity episode (got distracted by warframe)

Kon how long is the episode

[elfin sigil]

3hr 29min

Was already typing it out lmao

[cold tartan]

C4 speculation + 11|| full table here for seekers. Wonder if they’re the next table up ||

[elfin sigil]

||I think so. My guess is them and then the Schemers so the Schemers can all get fired in cold opens||

[cold tartan]

Think about how good the montage will be

[minor lantern]

checks episode number
Cr4e11 ||We not going back to the other group? They seem to be focusing here... Also I forgot where we left off.||

[cold tartan]

Cold open

C4 e11 || I realize that this is the emo table now ||

|| okay ngl I personally need the cold opens to be a little more high energy. ||

[elfin sigil]

Yeah I had the come to Jesus moment a few weeks ago that the cold opens are replacements for a lot of filler/travel/bureaucratic episodes and I think that's an okay price to pay for ideally higher tempo sessions for the "main" table

[cold tartan]

Which is a change I like because that’s where I tend to stall sometimes when watching

But sheesh is it a tough way to open an episode sometimes when everybody || is all whispery and sad||

|| ah I wasn’t crazy!||

[elfin sigil]

CR4 ||Yeah Seekers next confirmed||

[minor lantern]

||Next time seekers table ||

[cold tartan]

Okay c4 general || 6 session arc for table 1 rotation! That’s faster than I thought it would be ||

This is my least favorite ad segment

[elfin sigil]

I skipped it

[cold tartan]

https://tenor.com/view/cry-sad-stitch-stitch-sad-sad-stitch-gif-5671323

[minor lantern]

You left us

[cold tartan]

Everytime they advertise the beacon discord it makes me want to buy beacon less lol

[minor lantern]

Haha, why need their discord when we got ours right?

[cold tartan]

4 11 || huh ||

[elfin sigil]

I don't even have it synced

Apparently its enormous though

[cold tartan]

And it’s owned and modded by the actual company which that sounds like the Reddit but worse

[cold tartan]

|| so um they really spilt the session to do an hour+ of other tables || 11

[elfin sigil]

This segment will be ||45 minutes||

[cold tartan]

4 11 || PAYING THE CAST OFF SOLDIERS! I LOVE IT ||

[minor lantern]

C4e11 ||You know I think he's cooking. ||

[cold tartan]

|| COUNTER COUP INTO REVOLUTION! THE CLASS STRUGGLE CAMPAIGN HAS BEGUN||

|| REVOLUTIONARY MESS||

|| making me wait for the schemers table is so mean ||

[elfin sigil]

Counterpoint: ||They do the cold opens much better than the Seekers||

[cold tartan]

|| I feel like the seekers just need a good ole visit from: stimulants ||

[elfin sigil]

CR4 general ||I like Alex a lot but he's very low energy||

[cold tartan]

|| ngl I’m a little worried about that table, need the vibes to go up by like 20%||

[elfin sigil]

Mhmm

CR4 general ||Matt can't be only broody/angry, Aabria can't be only sad/primal fury, Ashley hasn't done much yet outside some aura farming, and Alex is sort of carrying things but doesn't seem to want to lmao||

[cold tartan]

|| like Ash is the only source of levity there and everybody else is sad all the time ||

[cold tartan]

11 || MARISHA AGREES!||

[minor lantern]

Cr4e11 ||We're not gonna get the soldiers anymore. ||

[cold tartan]

|| they’ll probably be back!

-# unless they all die tonight ||

I’m gonna need to rewatch this segment at some point because I’ve been distracted for the last 25 minutes

[minor lantern]

Cr4e11 ||I do think the soldiers is my favorite, imma miss them.||

[elfin sigil]

CR4 11 1:25 ||I'd be more into this cliffhanger if I didn't have to wait another three months to get any resolution on it||

[cold tartan]

|| maybe 4 if they take another month off!||

Live || god it so weird having them be in the same session from a month ago ||

[elfin sigil]

||I've been rewatching it for exactly this reason||

[mighty yoke]

I barely remember where we left off it’s been so long, I’m probably going to have to go back and rewatch the end of the last ep

[cold tartan]

I’ve spaced out || did they reverse the petrification?||

[mighty yoke]

||no||

[cold tartan]

LIVE || I’m team wheels lol ||

[mighty yoke]

Anyone know how long tonight’s ep is?

[elfin sigil]

.

[cold tartan]

Live || DADDY LIKE 👀 ||

|| huh so the hounds are paladins and not druids ||

[elfin sigil]

||Yeah they got there last week. They're reincarnated Paladins||

[cold tartan]

|| I love the hounds. They’re so fun ||

|| lol Laura letting Sam spend money ||

|| idk maybe get farther away from the people you just pissed off before resting lol || live

|| uhhhhhhh splitting and putting Kat in the city?????|| live

LIVE || REVOLUTION INTENSIFIES ||

|| Travis is going full lion king ||

[elfin sigil]

3:09 Beacontime ||Sam and Robbie and Laura and Travis are all making the same face lmao||

[cold tartan]

Live || oh no they gonna bang||

|| oooooooh so this is how we get tieflings||

|| oh nvm that’s not how they get tieflings||

Live || ngl Brennan stating tyranny’s purpose as “out here to hurt the world” is dark||

[cold tartan]

|| god I wish I knew what that was ||

[elfin sigil]

Out of curiosity how far off is Beacontime from live time after the break?

Is it exactly 10min?

[cold tartan]

Break was like 8-10

[elfin sigil]

What's your timestamp?

[cold tartan]

It includes the pre stream

3:36:30

[elfin sigil]

That's actually also good to know

[cold tartan]

Like if beacon gets the promos after the cold open then break is the only real divergence

[elfin sigil]

Beacon gets the promos but it doesn't get the mid break

No prestream, no midbreak

Cool Down 11 is at least initially mostly about episode 10

Since that episode didn't get one

Cooldown 11 ||Robbie seems pretty thrilled that the dice are mostly allowing Kattigan to be very good where Kattigan is in his estimation supposed to be and bad where he thinks Kattigan would naturally struggle||

[cold tartan]

You think there’s any chance that the question show next week actually asks “hey why’d y’all take a month off”

[elfin sigil]

Hope so

The more I think about it the more I think that this was kind of a shotgun affair

And by this I mean the whole campaign

The opening sequence wasn't finished for the first four episodes

[cold tartan]

4e11 || like idk if it was just my ability to pay attention tonight but this episode was so weird. And not in a good way||

[elfin sigil]

I'm not sure what's going on but I think they had to swerve fairly late and all things considered I think this is going pretty well

[elfin sigil]

I liked it

[cold tartan]

This is the most I liked a start to a campaign but like

[elfin sigil]

Cooldown 11 ||Brennan is explaining what he meant by Vestige of Divergence||

[cold tartan]

|| I liked the back half of the soldiers stuff but long cold open => ad read => even longer cold open => break => half session after a month off is just kinda jarring ||

[elfin sigil]

||The weapon will level with Tyranny. He's saying this was a normal thing to happen with champions of gods and that this knife does specifically have this quality even though it shouldn't by the world's logic||

[elfin sigil]

Oh, yeah, I think I'd have been a lot less on board with it if I hadn't just relistened to the whole series

Cooldown
Robbie: ||Magic is jacked, right?||
Brennan: ||You're in spaces near to the Orcish homeland, which is one of the spaces of relative stability, which I'm realizing is kind of a kindness in terms of as you adventure out from Dol-Makjar. But as you get further afield it gets weirder and weirder. I think the Seekers table, where we're headed next, is headed into one of the Barrow-Dells. They're headed into the Stormwrack, which is the eternal storm that exists in the place where the goddess of the forge, the Shaper of the dwarves, was destroyed||

Cooldown 11 ||Travis' favorite dog is Felltower||

[solemn raft]

So should i check out campaign 4 if i dropped campaign 3?

[cold tartan]

Okay 4e11 is done || I’m still worried about the down time between tables but like 6 episode arcs would be kinda perfect ngl ||

[cold tartan]

Yes! C4 is really fun

[elfin sigil]

Its pretty radically different

Worth giving a shot imo

[cold tartan]

Like I dropped c3 too

My C4 issues is not with the campaign but the CR production team

[turbid juniper]

i never bothered with c3 based on what i heard with it and am LOVING c4, it's much different than any CR i've seen before

also if i use a friend's beacon account/wait until mondays for youtube where i have the sponsorblock extension, ads and such are never a problem for me

(the pitt is airing on thursdays for a while too now so i'm not watching live as that happens i think)

[elfin sigil]

Robbie: ||You gonna miss us?||
Brennan: ||Of course I'm gonna miss you||
Whitney: ||We're your favorite table (this is not phrased as a question)||
Brennan: ||But of course we're not going to have to wait for the next time you're at the table, we'll be seeing you guys in probably scenes from the road, in those sick sick cold opens||
Sam: ||Have they started writing those yet?||
Brennan: ||I'll say, memorizing five hours of script is tough, but I'm happy to do it every single week||

Sam: ||My backup character is Hawkins||

I unironically love that they keep dunking on the "CR is scripted" crowd

Favorite running joke for CR

Honestly, shocking that they still get that after a decade of other actual plays doing more or less the same thing

[minor lantern]

I passed out 😭

[swift edge]

Watching Danny Motta's most recent m9 reaction and him asking ||if Essek has any stans|| is absolutely hilarious

yeah. imagine

[narrow bramble]

||the do people ship jester with anyone other than fjord was equally hilarious ||M9 danny motta reaction

||based on his take of loving jester and nott chaos i think hed love the actual play becuase they tone down everyones chaos for the show||

[untold crystal]

I finally watched all of M9 this week. Good stuff, very good stuff, [will spoiler for safety, but no specific plot stuff inside] || but as a season it felt kinda.. weird? It kind of just ends abruptly||

[red beacon]

My brother literally didn’t realize it was the finale lmao

[bleak sparrow]

very fair

[swift edge]

M9 ||It's a pretty mean cliffhanger right at the end, but I definitely think the finale feels like a finale. Giant party heist, confronting Trent, and then the big Kryn/Volstrucker battle in the sky were all big "this is the climax" vibes in my book||

[elfin sigil]

IMO they get away with it by already having two s2 episodes in the tank

I don't think fall of this year is unreasonable

[bleak sparrow]

||It didn't even feel like a proper cliffhanger to me||

||It just kinda...ended||

[narrow bramble]

||I think this was the only reasonable ending unless you want yeah to not meet the party || m9 all

[halcyon wing]

I laughed at this too.

Listen buddy… you probably won’t understand this for 2 years, but yes. Yes he does.

[elfin sigil]

Okay

CR needs to pick a name/theme for their between-show show and stick with it

I 100% understand that they needed to kill Talks Machina but why'd they kill 4 Sided Dive for "Tale Gate"?

[bleak sparrow]

Before that they need to pick a name for the damn campaign already

[elfin sigil]

That's a good point, I hadn't even considered it didn't have a name since they aren't really a cohesive group and the campaign name has always been the group name

Brennan doesn't seem to be pushing for it like Matt has in the past

[bleak sparrow]

Seekers, Schemers, Sodiers

[elfin sigil]

Seeker Schemer Soldier Spy

[narrow bramble]

I genuinely think thats intended and their is a traitor in their midst

and its either ||liam or Luis || but i can't tell which

[cold tartan]

You joke but a le carre novel style campaign about class struggle is like my dream lol

[elfin sigil]

Brennan does like a mashup

[elfin sigil]

To this point, I do find that the traitor in their midst schtick works a hell of a lot better in one-shots to supposed-to-be-oneshots than it does in full size campaigns most of the time

[minor lantern]

||Naw it's Sam. His name also starts with S! It's all connected! ||

[elfin sigil]

Laura: I have ideas about Robbie's backstory
Sam: Ooooo, spill
Laura: No, because what if I guess right and Robbie is like "oh no you revealed my backstory"
Brennan: And then he goes back and changes his backstory, like they did on Lost!

[slow harness]

CR C4 E9 ||in which Sam somehow fails to do shopping||

||also dog kingdom is peak worldbuilding. 10/10 would live there and leave out exorbitant amounts of food for the dogs to eat||

[slow harness]

C4 E10 ||in which the gang is about to get shanked by a basilisk and a large number of guards||

||absolutely nothing good can come from the light magic cleric house working alongside the necromancer house||

[cold tartan]

Well time to see if the || other table can hold my attention. || 12

Live || didn’t have him making newborn noises||

|| EXCUSE ME UNCLES WOULD HAVE ADVANTAGE BRENNAN||

[minor lantern]

Cr4e12 ||Thizjae a warlock maybe?||

||Liam dad mode is hitting hard. ||

[cold tartan]

12 || and now we go to the sad boi table that needs some caffeine ||

This episode is brought to you by the guy who wrote an angry letter to LeBron James in comic sans

[mighty yoke]

Just joining, which table was the intro?

[cold tartan]

||liam ||

|| flashback at start of falcon rebellion ||

[cold tartan]

Live || okay good they’re less sad more fun than last week ||

[bleak sparrow]

missed the first 45 mins

what happened

[cold tartan]

|| they got to the city ||

[minor lantern]

Cr4e12 ||Sam carrying the game and he ain't even here.||

[cold tartan]

|| so does peristalsis work??||

[minor lantern]

Cr4e12 ||I love her, can we keep her?||

[cold tartan]

|| 👀||

[bleak sparrow]

||Wick my GOAT||

[minor lantern]

Cr4e12 ||Wait is she a demon girl? ||

[bleak sparrow]

who

[minor lantern]

||The one who they just talked to.||

Cr4e12 ||I can't wait till we find Wick's gf.||

||Just flip him upside down. ||

[cold tartan]

Live || UH OH||

|| LOLOLOLOL||

|| honestly loving the tension of how like in danger they all are ||

|| loving this episode so far. Vibes are great ||

[cold tartan]

Live || bad idea….. bad idea|||

|| ooooo that was a fun half episode!||

[cold tartan]

|| this is great || Live

|| knew that handmaid was sus ||

|| YOU AIN’T WANT TO FIND OUT WHO SHE SENT THE MESSAGE TO????||

[minor lantern]

I passed out again 😭

[cold tartan]

I didn’t make it to the end either

[cold tartan]

Oh right I still have to finish last night’s episode

-# I will forget this 5 more times

[cold tartan]

lol I checked out 10 minutes before the episode ended

[cold tartan]

4 12 all || genuinely surprised on how much I liked that episode. Was really worried about how dour everybody was in the cold open last week. But this episode was tense and funny and just kinda a blast ngl ||

[red beacon]

4-9 halfway point ||im going through it slowly but im loving kattigan and tyranny dynamics, they’re sooo cute||

[bleak sparrow]

The lack of lighthearted characters is really making the Seekers pop for me

I'm locked in for this arc

[mighty yoke]

4.12 2nd half ||I thought greta was acting suspicious by trying to leave so many times, but I just thought she wanted to leave Ingrid alone with them, not to betray them ||

||genuinely really enjoyed this episode though, and aabria’s reactions to the einfassen were great ||

[red beacon]

C4e9 back half ||okay what is up with Teor. What source is he getting his magic from?||

[cold tartan]

|| only teor is teor||

[elfin sigil]

https://youtu.be/4JtUPBkYQOY

Apparently that famed week where Brennan started recording Fantasy High and started dating Izzy and became full time College Humor staff is also the same week they filmed the Um Actually Mercer was on (which is where they met) and was the week they finished CR1 and was the week Mercer had his bachelor party

[solemn raft]

thats a stacked week

[cold tartan]

We got an episode tonight?

[halcyon wing]

I thought I saw they announced they’d delay until tomorrow so staff can participate in the (politics) ||general strikes||.

Oh nvm that’s tomorrow mornings rebroadcast

[minor lantern]

But I am catching up today for today.

[minor lantern]

It looks like they aren't delaying the episode but is delaying tomorrows rebroadcast because there is going to be a general strike?

[cold tartan]

4 13 live || lol Brennan is one on rn||

[minor lantern]

Cr4e13 ||So did one of the gods become a mortal? 👀 ||

[cold tartan]

Live || the sniff and keep ||

[cold tartan]

Live || that poor pigeon ||

[cold tartan]

Live || I forgot about his weird curse or whatever ||

[cold tartan]

Live || last week was fast paced this feels glacial ||

[minor lantern]

Do we know how long this episode is?

[reef halo]

||3h28||

[cold tartan]

I clocked out for the night I’ll catch up durian the week

[minor lantern]

Ty

Cr3e13 || ||

[bleak sparrow]

Same

After the end of the last ep I expected immediate hype stuff but nah we just got two slow as hell scenes in 1.5h

I initially loved the more novel POV like structure of the campaign but now it's beginning to drag

Schemers table has not felt like a D&D table at all

[elfin sigil]

Yeah and I love it

[cold tartan]

13 ||It’s just a little too slow for me rn I’m sure it will pick up again after the break||, I’m just not in the mood for it tonight

[bleak sparrow]

In theory so do I

But I think it slows them down way too much

[minor lantern]

Cr3e13 ||Is everything al-||

[slow harness]

C4 E11 ||we interrupt the story of vengeance and religious trauma and return to our regularly scheduled authoritarian takeover||

[minor lantern]

CR3e98 ||Sam's back ||

[minor lantern]

||Dominox ||

[minor lantern]

||Brennan is now dming ||

||Downfall ||

[minor lantern]

Cr3e99 ||The more and more I watch of the season the more and more that I agree with Ludinous. ||

[cold tartan]

4 14 || I am struggling with this episode ||

[minor lantern]

I forgot about CR today, I'll have to watch it later.

[elfin sigil]

I listened to the two most recent episodes yesterday while I was driving across the country and I think any reservations I still had about this table are just gone

Absolute bangers

CR4-14 ||I think Matt is still just kind of aura farming more than anything but the rest of the table is 10/10 for me||

[bleak sparrow]

Is 14 good?

I kinda paused on it halfway through 13 cause even more than an hour in it was glacial

[plucky ibex]

I’ve only just started 14 so can’t really comment but the end of 13 is fun if you’re able to keep going

[mighty yoke]

4.14||truly insane how many nat 20s they rolled, esp Alex! Also very fun to see tyranny’s sisters convinced they would find her and wick ||

[elfin sigil]

4.14, language ||https://x.com/elesirart/status/2021639784561803372 ||

elesir (@ElesirArt)

I'm so glad Araman has its own version of Team Rocket now.

#criticalrolefanart #criticalrolespoilers

X · Feb 11, 2026, 5:37 PM

[thorn python]

https://www.tumblr.com/yudol-skorbi/808159223644143616/soldiers-table-or-whatever

vale of sorrow

soldiers table or whatever

-# #critical role #sketch #this is extremely low effort #cr4 #i dont have much free time rn #and i am so tired #i kinda accidentally ended up with 3 different jobs #which sucks #they dont even pay all thet well but whatever #soldiers table #wicander halovar #tyranny cr #teor pridesire #kattigan vale #thimble #wulferic

Tumblr · Feb 10, 2026, 10:51 AM

[narrow bramble]

Man I miss them doing fanart in the episodes

[elfin sigil]

During Cool Down they said there were two more episodes of the current table

They said it in a tone that indicated even they weren't sure how they were gonna wrap up Current Arc by then, which makes me think they're predetermining the arc length before they start it

[cold tartan]

Honestly I like that more

Keeps things brisk lol

[elfin sigil]

Which, sure, if they wanna make life harder for themselves they're welcome to do so, but they should at least say how long they intend an arc to be imo

[untold crystal]

Hey, more ammo to the "scripted!" parrots!

[red beacon]

C4e10 ||is the “giving yourself the help action” thing strictly licit?||

[untold crystal]

Raw? No

[red beacon]

C4e10 ||robbie is crashing out so hard this episode lmao||

[untold crystal]

|| is this the one where he fails every roll? ||

[red beacon]

Yes lmao

[red beacon]

This should be a wake up call for Travis and Robbie to increase their to hits

[narrow bramble]

I’ve found martials are very volatile in levels 1-4. It’s luck dependent once they hit 5 they will be fine

[untold crystal]

Travis' stats make me really sad. So many odd numbers

[narrow bramble]

In 2024 thats fine since all the feats are half feats

Its very likely he could want a to tale strength, Charisma, and Con half feat.

in fact you see this with his Strength he started at 14 and didn't increase a stat when he took a feat since it only brought up to 15

[untold crystal]

Still, it's sad right now

He needs 2 asis or 4 feats to round up

[narrow bramble]

he has good stats for the level hell be alright

[untold crystal]

They all have insane stats, idk what kind of rolls Brennan had them do, that's beside the point. I'm not saying the character is weak or anything. All I'm saying is it's sad to see 4 odd stats

[elfin sigil]

Yeah it really doesn't matter what your stats are when you're rolling low single digits on consecutive turns it just feels bad

[elfin sigil]

I don't remember what it was specifically but it was a nonstandard roll. Don't think it was 5d6d2 but it was something like that

[untold crystal]

Famous great d&d design of "I do nothing on my turn, pass"

And yeah, stats rolls had to be above standard

They couldn't all be so lucky

[abstract furnace]

Finally got around to watching The Mighty Nein, and boy is that cliff hanging

[elfin sigil]

IMO they only get away with it with a short turnaround time

[abstract furnace]

I don't know how short that can be, it feels like the season ended 1-2 episode short of where it should've

[elfin sigil]

They had the first two episodes of next season done before the first season was done airing, s2 goes up in the fall-ish timeframe

[abstract furnace]

Oh, that's soon

Still a weird move

[bleak sparrow]

I don't mind cliffhangers if they're done well

Across the Spiderverse has a cliffhanger and I adore it

But M9 S1 just kinda...ended

[minor lantern]

Cr3e101 ||I still not sure I understood all what happened ||

[abstract furnace]

aaand I am now on beacon.tv

which is probably a bad idea with my Dropout backlog, buuut I am sure I'll go... everything

[slow harness]

C4 e13 ||oh my gosh this ad segment ||

[thorn python]

https://www.tumblr.com/vasira96/799034190622556160/i-hope-they-make-each-other-worse

you like art?

i hope they make each other worse 🫶💕✨

-# #vasira arts #fanart #cr4 #critical role #cr tyranny #wicander halovar #i love whatever's wrong with them <3

Tumblr · Nov 1, 2025, 5:33 PM

[slow harness]

I love these two

C4 E14 ||the hell is this ad read?||

[thorn python]

Same. I hope they hook up and it goes badly for them

[slow harness]

C4 E14 after break ||these are some very lost and confused demons ||

||also of course Whitney characterized all of them||

[slow harness]

C4 e14 ||"it's not like [Occtis] hasn't been rolling 20's all day" he immediately rolls a 1
"None of us are the lion man, babygirl"
Truly a peak session||

[slow harness]

I scrolled back and found this. It's about right

[slow harness]

C4 E15 ||justified Taisha crashout||

[slow harness]

One more episode and then I'm caught up

C4 E16 ||"Women are tough"||

[slow harness]

C4 E16 ||a teeny tiny lore reveal on Kattigan is interrupted with Sam's stupid cat ad||

||like look at this||

[thorn python]

https://www.tumblr.com/anonym-potato/808357062332514304/a-beginners-guide-to-shipping-the-seekers

What the heck is even happening?

A Beginner's Guide to Shipping the Seekers

-# #critical role #Vaelus #Thaisha lloy #sir julien davinos #occtis tachonis

Tumblr · Feb 12, 2026, 3:16 PM

[narrow bramble]

where's the polycule options?

[thorn python]

You’ll need to make your own chart for that

[narrow bramble]

Critical role movie rumors going wild

[thorn python]

I saw that

They’d better be adapting Calamity

It would be foolish to adapt anything else

[halcyon wing]

The only other thing I could see is the vox machina (c1 spoilers) ||wedding one shot|| as a finale for the animated series.

Calamity would be the better choice though.

[thorn python]

https://www.tumblr.com/bushel-of-dreams/805240474947420160/literally-cannot-wait-for-this-poor-bastard-to

Nein

Literally cannot wait for this poor bastard to show up in the animated series...

Tumblr · Jan 9, 2026, 5:39 AM

[thorn python]

https://www.tumblr.com/gros-chat-fait/810352464732782592/the-heralding-nightingales-the-soldiers-the

hyperfixations and illustrations

The Heralding Nightingales

--

The Soldiers | The Seekers | The Schemers

-# #critical role #critical role fanart #cr4 #seekers table #the first sketch of this featured aranessa then she left #and then i was JUST putting dame gaya in when she was [redacted] #the soldiers got a nice bonding hour and a half and a name and the seekers got lore galore and trauma #then they both turned the cars around #it'd be really funny if at the end of the next arc the schemers decide to leave the city #dunno if i'll be able to catch the schemers episodes but i'll try to finish this little series #sir julien davinos #occtis tachonis #thaisha lloy #vaelus #and a glimpse of #amry talter #art du chat

Tumblr · Mar 6, 2026, 3:52 PM

https://www.tumblr.com/gros-chat-fait/805913232148660224/the-fanged-falcons

hyperfixations and illustrations

The Fanged Falcons.

--

The Soldiers | The Seekers | The Schemers

-# #critical role #critical role fanart #cr4 #soldiers table #good bye my sweet bebes i will miss you for a while #this was a banger ep btw extremely juicy #oddly comforting despite all the horrors #i lov teor and [redacted] and the [redacted] scene sooo much #paladins really are my weakness #teor pridesire #kattigan vale #thimble cr #wulferic #wicander halovar #tyranny cr #and a glimpse of #cyd pridesire #art du chat

Tumblr · Jan 16, 2026, 3:52 PM

Op hasn’t completed the set yet

[slow harness]

C4 E17 ||"that's the first time I've seen someone take all 6 seconds to cast a spell"||

[reef halo]

C4E20 ||Murray and Bolaire fabricating the vision of Occtis’s murder was so sick||

[slow harness]

C4 E18 ||Sam had some sick role-playing in the cold open and then immediately follows it up with a cringey Heated Rivalry spoof ||

[urban swift]

C4E14 ||Man, I felt bad for Ashley in that fight. That was just awful.||

[narrow bramble]

||one of these days I hope Laura uses steady aim while flying becuase technically that should instantly result in her falling to the ground and taking damage || C4 general

[slow harness]

C4 E18 ||evil undead celestial boss fight is a fricking sick idea||

[slow harness]

||failed attempt to fire a ballista followed by Ashley crit-smiting, Ashley getting bodied, and now Matt is down||

||"you are aware we're level 3 and 4 right?"||

C4 E18 ||Ashley fricking carrying this fight after regularly getting screwed over in the previous fights is so cool||

[narrow bramble]

C4E20 ad ||You can see the moment talisen starts biting the inside of his cheek to prevent laughing lol||

[urban swift]

C4E17 ||I love seeing how feral Matt is as a player. He's cool and collected sometimes, but the longer he plays as Julien, the funnier and more of an instigator he becomes||

[narrow bramble]

Genuinely how do the cast have such a problem with cocked dice and not being able to identify them I’ve seen that happen like 2 times a year

At most

[urban swift]

If the numbers have a fancy font or they don't have good lighting, it's easy to misread the numbers for me

Also I think they all use dice trays and depending on the tray, my dice definitely end up cocked more than other times

[weak wedge]

Especially with the tiny, rigid, rectangular trays they use, I can imagine that'd be REAL easy to roll cocked

[urban swift]

C4E19 ||Azune has so much anxiety oh my God||

[urban swift]

C4E19 ||Oh so Luis is that player, okay! Luis and Liam is going to hurt me! :D||

[thorn python]

https://www.tumblr.com/ajaxises/812743575600283648

ajax

-# #azulien #critical role #cr4 #critical role campaign 4 #julien davinos #azune nayar

Tumblr · Apr 2, 2026, 1:17 AM

[narrow bramble]

everyone knows you just type Gondor calls for aid

[minor lantern]

I remember this as a RvB joke

[thorn python]

https://www.tumblr.com/ohmyeightpastlives/813265679496151040/mighty-nein

[minor lantern]

Cr3e107 ||God is here ||

[minor lantern]

https://tenor.com/view/absolute-cinema-raccoon-absolute-cinema-gif-17862327649353748812

[narrow bramble]

||“I’d like to lodge a complaint against house tachonis. Also they owe me 250 gold pieces”- dimudus|| c4 e22 this broke me

[untold crystal]

Can't watch right now but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkqIXFztj6Q&pp=0gcJCcMKAYcqIYzv

[narrow bramble]

Omg did they move around one of my favorite jokes?

[minor lantern]

I don't think I watched s3.

[untold crystal]

June 3rd hype!

[thorn python]

🦆

[narrow bramble]

I thought we were never gonna see the duck joke

[thorn python]

I’ve heard mallard jokes aren’t all they’re quacked up to be

[bleak sparrow]

I've missed VM but not their sense of humour lol

[narrow bramble]

The thing is most of the humor is great it’s just that it’s concentrated from a 4 hour+ liveplays into 20 minutes

Most of the jokes are iconic moments

[slow harness]

C4 E19 ||(start of the Schemers arc)
"Back to the beginning of the same week we started 6 months ago"
"It's been a rather eventful 48 hours"
"We're the people with jobs"||

[mighty yoke]

4:24|| crazy to go from ‘it’s been the same day for months’ to 4 days in one episode, lots of crazy stuff though! Very much enjoying this table, I’ll be sad when this arc wraps up ||

[narrow bramble]

The biggest concern I’ve had with c4 is having seen a lot of these types of multi table same setting campaigns the timeline always goes out of wack

[mighty yoke]

Yeah it’ll be interesting to see how they handle that with ||The other tables coming back ||

[minor lantern]

I got like 9 more episodes for cr3, then I'll come back to 4.

[narrow bramble]

Cr4e25 ||noooo Brennan doesn’t know command wastes the action regardless ||

[mighty yoke]

4.25||omg this episode was crazy!! Murray’s portent being the one thing Brennan didn’t anticipate?! Him using one of his own ticks as a real life deception check!?! Murray’s pettiness to just hurry up and kill this woman leading to a real life conspiracy being uncovered!?!! Absolutely brilliant banger episode, banger table ||

[olive bear]

4.25 ||probably the best TTRPG combat I've seen||

[narrow bramble]

its def the best in CR

[olive bear]

The only close contender I can think of is C2 ||That one fight with Avantika||

[acoustic escarp]

This weeks episode is packed. So much lore and new knowledge about the characters. The Schemers table is my favorite, as well as Soldiers. Schemers is also great.

[urban swift]

Ooh, I missed it but look forward to catching up!

[acoustic escarp]

I’m watching it right now. 😁

[narrow bramble]

We finally got a detailed map

Also I think they are working on a module

But that’s speculation

[elfin sigil]

I'm shocked it took them as long as it did

They have the resources

Brennan indicated sometime during the Soldiers table arc that they were still working with his back of the napkin map

[narrow bramble]

I think they wanted to wait until the schemers table

[olive bear]

Oh right I have access to beacon I should go watch the ep

[olive bear]

Sick. I love this setting a lot so far. I want a gazetteer ASAP so I can run TTRPG sessions there. It would probably be best to wait until this campaign finishes though so there's a better idea of when in the timeline to set it to best consider how much one wants to follow canon events

[olive bear]

Yeah, I think they were waiting to crystalize a few details until the Schemers could properly have their own influence on the city as they envision for their characters - plus there may have been some worldbuilding relevant details Brennan and anyone else involved in the worldbuilding were considering

[untold crystal]

Ive been stuck on ep20 forever now

Seeker's table completely killed the momentum for me :/

and I've really liked what I've watched of 20 so far, but was just burned out from CR I didn't keep going

[cold tartan]

I didn’t even get through the seekers lol

I should really read the recaps

And just dip into schemers

[untold crystal]

yeah, it was really weird how I just powered through that section, and stopped after it was over

idk what I was thinking 🤣

I probably just had less of other content I was interested in at the time

been spending way more time watching video game stuff lately

[cold tartan]

I even liked the start of the seekers! I just hit a boring patch of an episode and never got back on track

[olive bear]

Seekers does have a rough patch in the middle for a few reasons, but even then I liked the nadir of Seekers more than the majority of C3.

4e26 ||I was just thinking of Ingrid Einfasen and literally about 10 seconds later she shows up. I love this character so much. Ingrid and Doctor Talter are two NPCs of the Seekers table who just stole my heart - I hope to see more of Talter this ep!||

||Ah perfect she's there because of the train of thought which had me eventually thinking about her, which was "what women of the Sundered Houses that we've seen so far would be the least worst option for Julien to marry?"||

||"Ah great, I will go find a window." I LOVE HER!!!||

[olive bear]

atp I'm just live blogging my thoughts ||They had like an hour to talk about how they were going to talk their way into the city and did not spend a second thinking about it. I don't know what percentage of the delivery here is intentional by Robbie vs Robbie himself floundering. From now on, Dr. Finger drives the cart||

[reef halo]

https://www.tumblr.com/gros-chat-fait/816021874565955584/the-mischievous-magpies-the-soldiers-the

hyperfixations and illustrations

The Mischievous Magpies

--

The Soldiers | The Seekers | The Schemers

My commissions are currently open!

-# #critical role #critical role fanart #cr4 #schemers table #azune nayar #murray mag'nesson #halandil fang #bolaire lathalia #and a glimpse of #demodus blix #how i got this one out so quick this time you asked? i had this on the backburner since last week #also omg what was that episode???? #i was so tempted to go back and put king gus in just for that episode alone #but its okay i'm drawing him and murray later #i think they should get to chat each other up is all #this table is so well rounded and competent #everyone's so good at their jobs #recreated bolaire and murray's coat patterns i hope they're accurate #art du chat

Tumblr · May 8, 2026, 5:45 AM

[thorn python]

Yay!

[urban swift]

C4 E26 ||You know what, I think Maya Davinos has a point actually. That is how noble houses continue. Julien probably does need to get married.||

||Ingrid Einfasen, canonically: "I can fix him!"||

[urban swift]

C4 E27 ||I'm watching it all but I'm very very confused as to who is going where and doing what. Why are there so many.||

[narrow bramble]

||Honestly I get they are against it but I think the story where they end up together would be soooo good || c4 e27

[thorn python]

https://www.tumblr.com/artistic--ghost/818142649777307648/shrimp-thimble-before-mermay-is-over

artistic._.ghost

Shrimp Thimble before Mermay is over

-# #my art #critical role #critical role fanart #fanart #cr4 #thimble cr #mermay #mermay 2026

Tumblr · May 31, 2026, 3:33 PM

[narrow bramble]

shrimble