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Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
Hello and welcome to the Legend of Vox Machina, where a bunch of nerdy rear end voice actors hosed around and launched a multimillion dollar multimedia empire because they play dungeons and dragons. The series can be found on Amazon Prime with new episodes dropping on Thursdays. (OP updated for season 2)

What is the show like?
It's adult animation of fantasy adventures - so bawdy jokes, magic, big rear end weapons, dragons, excessive blood and gore, and interpersonal dynamics within a group. The sort of show that has a song about anal beads and an extended arc showing the collateral damage from a monomanical focus on revenge. And guns.

There's more heart and drama than you'd expect from an adult animated comedy, and also more effort than you'd expect put into the dickjokery.

Is it good?
The first season was extremely well reviewed, certified fresh with a 100% tomatometer and 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes (the first episodes are a bit rough, think more Train Job than the original Pilot of Firefly). Screeners for the second season have received similar praise thus far.

It's not funny enough to stand on its own as a comedy (e.g. Archer) nor thoughtprovoking and meticulously crafted enough to stand alone as a serious work (e.g. (I'm told) Invincible). It does a solid job of finding that center, though, a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The only thinkpieces it'll generate are meta (the process of the kickstarter, the adaptation of hundreds of hours of source material, gender dynamics in the nerd community), but I find it an enjoyable middlebrow animated series that manages to punch out of its weight class with some regularity.

This is based on some podcast stream right? Do I need to have seen it?
The overwhelming verdict from the first season is no past knowledge of the hundreds of hours of Critical Role that this is based on is necessary. The biggest thing I noticed from responses in thread is that streamwatchers found certain characters less grating and certain moments less selfindulgent than those who came in blind. Personally, I love seeing the reactions and takes of everyone who hasn't seen the stream, so please :justpost: if you do give this show a shot!

I suspect you'll be able to jump into Season 2 without having seen Season 1 (will update this take as needed)

Season One (plot spoilers below) ended with a cataclysmic attack on a major city by a group of dragons. From reviews and interviews, Season 2 will deal with the aftermath of that attack and the question of how you defeat an undefeatable foe. Season 3 has already been greenlit.

Season 1 recap:

Vox Machina gets into a bar fight, bickers, and nearly gives up on being a ragtag group of misfits before finding a bounty poster and going off to defeat the beast ravaging the countryside. It goes poorly, with Keyleth panicking and freezing before saving everyone's lives from a dragon. Well, everyone in Vox Machina. The plucky young children we meet earlier in the episode? Of course they're dead. Their deaths spur Vox Machina to fight the dragon and, after a brief investigaton and through a blend of trickery and selfawareness, defeat it. But not before it warns that dragons will usurp men as rulers.

Hailed as heroes and protectors of the city, Vox Machina are granted a castle and invited to a banquet, where they meet the Briarwoods. Lord Sylas and Lady Delilah Briarwood are sexy and supernaturally powerful rulers of Whitestone, Percy's ancestral home. We come to learn they rule the city because they viciously murdered Percy's entire* family. In a fight outside the soiree, Vox Machina gets their collective asses kicked but Vax, whilst dodging a threesome, manages to steal a book of great import from the couple. Percy also goes positively batshit.

Under house arrest in the castle, many characters share their deepest struggles until Delilah's undead servants come and start killing the guards (and crushing Vox Machina) in search of the stolen book. With teamwork, and some surprisingly powerful magic from Keyleth, they manage to defeat the ghouls(?) and are freed from their imprisonment on a mission to rid Whitestone and the realm of the Briarwoods. Pike stays back, because she's a cleric struggling to connect with her patron and must undergo secret mountain training in a temple. Along the way, the group begins decoding the book and find reference to Vecna The Whispered One and a ziggeraut. The book is eventually lost (along with most of their gear) as one of Delilah's menagerie of horrors finally bests the group, but they nonetheless arrive in Whitestone where they are greeted by murdered villagers hanging from a tree, men women and children dressed to look like them.

They learn Percy's younger sister Cassandra is alive and being held by the Briarwoods and that Percy's childhood friend is leading a rebellion against them. Episodes cover the swath of revenge Percy carves through the Briarwood cronies who tormented his family and he becomes notably more demonic with each revenge murder. I'm sure this will end fine. The Briarwoods raise an undead army and appear to have the rebellion and our heroes beat until Pike returns* and uses her holy power to kill the army.

The Briarwoods, we come to learn, became servants of notVecna when Delilah sought to save Sylas' life many years prior and are going to use the ziggeraut to bring about his return. A chase/dungeon crawl ensues and Cassandra betrays Vox Machina for the Briarwoods, only somewhat due to mind control. Keyleth kills Sylas, Percy battles a fearsomely literal representation of his inner demons, they stop Delilah's rite, and a De Rolo returns to power in Whitestone as Cassandra takes the throne. Vox Machina return home victorious and the season ends with the surprise dragon attack and seeming fulfillment of the first dragon's warning.

Official ships as of the end of S1:
Pike & Scanlan (we don't feel great about it)
Vax & Keyleth
Vex & Percy
Vax & Vex no Lannisters allowed


Character and Cast intros and the original OP in the next post!

Paracaidas fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Jan 19, 2023

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Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
Who are these heroes?


If you have ale, then you have a friend in Grog Strongjaw. A goliath barbarian has an appetite for the two great loves in his life: combat, women, and ale. Don't be fooled by his towering size and intimidating demeanor, Grog is lowkey the brains of the group and is often consulted by his friends for his vast knowledge of shapes, colors, and shiny things. Please be aware that he would like to rage.


Grog was created and is voiced by Travis Willingham, best known for voicing Roy on Full Metal Alchemist and Thor in everything ever. He is the CEO of Critical Role Productions and husband of Laura Bailey.




What is a fearsome barbarian without his little friend? A cleric of Sarenrae, Pike Trickfoot is the healer of the group and found out the hard way that sometimes healers need some help of their own. Though she was brought back from the clutches of death, the journey has left some scars on the bright and sunny healer--- a bit more violent, a bit more aggressive, a bit more willing to look the other way for some of her less... devout... companions.


Pike was created and is voiced by Ashley Johnson who I recognize as Gretchen Grundler from Disney's Recess but you would better know as Ellie from Last of Us, Patterson from Blindspot, Chrissy Seaver from Growing Pains or the titular lead from the cult favorite CBS sitcom You've Got Gale (canceled after 4 episodes, it was the Firefly of the 80s. Gag us with a spoon, CBS!). 




Vax'ildan is the party's cunning halfelf rogue and resident sadboi. An outsider since birth, Vax quickly learned to solve life's challenges in his own particular way, often by sidestepping them entirely. And when his knack for circumventing adversity isn't enough, the way of blades the elves schooled him in more than makes up the difference. Which blades? His first choice is always dagger. Dagger is his second favorite, and when pressed, he will sometimes instead choose dagger.


Vax was created and is voiced by Liam O'Brien who was Gaara on Naruto, Akihiko Sanada in Persona 3, Caius Ballad in Final Fantasy and hundreds of other characters on a bunch of things I don't watch or play. He also voice directs all of the things.




Obnoxiously named twin sister of Vax, Vex'halia is the halfelf ranger in the crew. Whereas Vax took to the cities, stealing small trinkets and learning the ways of the thief, Vex kept to the woods. She preferred the isolation. Always the keen observer, she learned to hunt and to track, to spy, and to shoot. And through a series of fateful events, earned herself a companion in the form of a bear—her own stolen Trinket—to fight alongside her and protect her fiercely. 


Vex was created and is voiced by Laura Bailey, who broke into the industry as Kid Trunks in DBZ (which his how she met her husband, Travis Willingham. I feel as though this would make a better plot for HIMYF, a show that I have never watched), Abby in Last of Us 2, Black Widow in most things Marvel, Rise Kujikawa in Persona 4, female protagonist in Persona 3 Portable and also all of the women in all of the other games and anime that have ever been made.




Lord Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III Percy was the third child of seven children, born to a noble family who lived far to the north in the ancient castle of Whitestone. With so many siblings to share the burdens of lordship, Percy turned his attention to the sciences, engineering, and naturalism. His family was murdered and much of the first season revolves around his thirst for vengeance. Speaking of revolving, this tinkering gently caress basically invented guns. I'm sure introducing firearms to this fantasy world will be fine?



Percy was created and is voiced by Talesin Jaffe, an immortal vampire best known as Kenny from Mr Mom and She's the Sheriff, Uldric from Pillars of Eternity, and is also that middle aged goth guy that always seems to vanish when you try to get a closer look.




Naive, petite, shy, self-conscious, and socially awkward, Keyleth's image camouflages the beast within. Literally. As the party's Druid, Keyleth will shape herself into nearly any beast once combat begins. Keyleth has been groomed for leadership in her elemental bender Ashari tribe but... leading is a lot of pressure. How can anyone live up to such high expectations? Has an affinity for goldfish. 


Keyleth was created and is voiced by Marisha Ray, who has a relatively light voice actor background compared to the rest of the cast-I know her best/exclusively as Margaret from Persona 4. Her corporate role seems to have picked up the pace a year earlier than her colleagues, at least in a publicfacing way: She serves as creative director of Critical Role Productions, making her generally responsible for making good on all of the potential benefits of CR separating itself from Geek and Sundry/Legendary at first opportunity in 2019-with a hand in content production and selection, set design, and generally wrangling the herd of cats necessary to at least kind of professionalize the behemoth that grew from "i guess put a camera on us and we'll play and see if anyone watches" to "twitch's top earning channel" without losing the charm or the enjoyable dynamic for the cast/owners. She's married to DM Matt Mercer (who created drat near every character not listed here), which is as close as you can come to wedding the Internet's Boyfriend without actually marrying Garrus.




Oh, you haven't heard of Scanlan Shorthalt? Well, gird your loins, ladies, because he has his eye on you. A talented musician, master of disguise, and dashingly handsome in his own mind, Scanlan sings songs almost as much as he sings his own praises. Born in a trailer park in Detroit's 8 Mile a poor gnome, Marshall Scanlan used his endless charm and soaring tenor voice to croon for coin and support his single mother. One day he was discovered by and joined Dr. Dre Dr. Dranzel's Spectacular Traveling Troupe, where he learned the ways of the world, and honed his skills as a bard extraordinaire. On the stream he was an endless fount of topically-focused parodies of pop songs. We are told that his ballads are just as bawdy and hilarious in the show but feature original music to avoid legal issues. He has two key relationships in the party, even though neither is particularly reciprocated- sworn enemy of Vex's bear Trinket and devoted wouldbe lover of his fellow gnome Pike.


Scanlan was created and is voiced by Emmy Award Winner Sam Riegel (hosed up that it's his legal name), best known as the voice of Donatello from TMNT, Tristan's original voice (RIP) from Yu-Gi-Oh, Teddie from Persona 4, and as a voice director in so many goddamn things. When you hear famous guests in Legends of Vox Machina, it's because Sam directed them once in something (Ducktales, usually).





Trinket, Vex's bear, is a vehicle for DM Matthew Mercer (overwatch, persona, pillars of eternity, fallout, all of the things) to make surprisingly expressive and evocative bear sounds. Expert back massager. Unwitting sworn enemy of Scanlan Shorthalt.


(More characters to be added as they're introduced! Existing character descriptions borrowed and adapted from the potentially spoilery episode 0 of campaign 1)

Original OP:
What is this?
An adult animated series condensing hundreds of hours of live, streamed D&D into 4 hours of animated bliss with another season to come. They drink. They gently caress. One sings. They kill enemies and themselves in violent and gory and fishy fashion. In the end, it's a story about a group of unlikely heroes and the friendship they develop while going up against their most stubborn foe: Doors, and later... a chair (that may once have been a door).

Is it good?
haven't seen it yet, to be honest. Now I have! I like it! Especially episode 3! As of the first weekend it has 17 critic reviews and is 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Consensus seems to be that the show hits its stride after a couple performatively edgy episodes to prove how adult it is. Goons who backed the kickstarter and got to watch early seem to agree that it is heavy on the gore early on.

Do I have to have watched the hundreds of hours of Critical Role to enjoy it?
"No!" according to the thread, friends, reviewers and the internet. Please join us! Selfishly I'm excited to see the reactions of anyone who hasn't poured literally weeks of their lives into watching Campaign 1 and how you feel about the characters and the stories and all of the things!

How did this happen?
There was a kickstarter to fund like, a half hour animated special and um, things escalated quickly. To the tune of a 2 season order from Amazon. The cast all has extensive voice acting experience, in gaming, in American cartoons, and in anime dubs. This experience has led to connections with character designer Phil Bourassa(from DC's Young Justice), guest cast like David Tenninchant, Tony Hale, Gina Torres and Stephanie Beatriz, and the animators of titmouse. To find out more about the overall world of Critical Role, please visit the wonderful thread that is currently discussing Campaign 3 (but very welcoming to anyone regardless of how many of the ~800hrs of CR content you've consumed). Or just ask and I'll answer in not the OP

Character and Cast intros in the next post!

Paracaidas fucked around with this message at 05:29 on Jan 19, 2023

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

lemonadesweetheart posted:

Someone good at time zones tell me is it after midnight PST now? Did you mean it drops on 29th? I'm confused because I expected this to be up by now.

Leaving this here because I'm dumb as gently caress and just realised it's the 27th.
Are... are you wondering if it's Friday yet?

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

Hef Deezy posted:

Thank you for making the thread, but is it possible to edit Marisha's bio to not focus so much on how angry some dudes got at her existence 5 years ago? I don't feel like I've seen that sentiment for a while now, and it kinda seems like an overly negative way to introduce her to newcomers...

In my defense all sense of editing had left my brain by that point. On it! E: and done!

I'm accepting any and all other feedback or notes. I'll likely swap out the character art for better examples as they arise in show!

Paracaidas fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Jan 27, 2022

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

Dameius posted:

I'm surprised you're not giving Laura the nod for voicing Kid Trunks in DBZ. I guess she's done bigger by now but that was the big credit she was known for when CR started annnd its the credit that got her and Travis together. :3:
My anime knowledge is functionally nil so that meant nothing to me but it's in the OP now!

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

Rougey posted:

Midnight GMT* and it's up, thankfully - it's 11am in Australia and I shifted a meeting so I could watch.

EDIT: Ahahahaha Gnome nuts.
Holy poo poo I was mislead. This is amazing news

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
One episode in:
  • Hey, that's the name of the show!
  • Gnome balls
  • The pacing definitely feels a bit off
  • please let that he the last Scanlan rap

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
Episode 2: the conclavw rug in the magic room

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

Dexo posted:

God Talesin put his foot in episode 3

Absolutely stellar. Also I knew where Beads was going from the jump and still :lol:'

Craven's Edge!!!

Paracaidas fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Jan 28, 2022

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

Escobarbarian posted:

I enjoyed the first three episodes but I also got the feeling it’s very impressed with itself about being a fantasy series with swears and sex jokes even though it’s far from a unique idea and a lot of them aren’t all that funny.
I feel extremely similarly so I'm hoping that I share the reviewers' experience that Ep 3 began a transition from "adult animation! Gnome balls! Gore!" from being the center of the show to a side bit. I'm honestly wondering if I'd even put those aspects of Eps 1 & 2 as Brickleberry tier or if that's too generous

Also hoping that we don't have more Scanlan rapping.

Escobarbarian posted:

The lead characters are mostly real cool, but I definitely started to sour on the bard somewhere around the second anal beads joke.
I mentioned in couchchat but I'm going to love as much perspective as you're willing to share as someone coming in blind. Like, this is great to hear and also helps me get into the mindset I had when first starting campaign 1 where I felt the same. I'm curious to see if opinion of him changes as his contribution evolves from BigsbyScanlan's Hand and sex jokes to showing more of what he's capable of.

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
I'm going to rewatch as a part of the twitter watch party with Fanology tonight (4:30pm PT and they better actually mean pacific time this time)
https://mobile.twitter.com/FANologyPV/status/1486868827610574852

On rewatch there'll be 2 main things I'll be looking for:
  1. Do they do enough to show that the party got lucky against the dragon? The Briarwood introduction is villainous and menacing as hell and conveys that these aren't ordinary people (or ordinary evil), but they're not a loving dragon. Did they leave enough room in the first two episodes that next week's trio of episodes can build them as a credible threat to Vox Machina? Or did they set themselves the standard comic peril inflation problem?
  2. D&D imagery I forgot if it was mentioned in any of the prehype videos but, for instance during the dragon fight when Scanlan saves Vax from the boulder, the boulder flashes D20ishly. I noticed some other eastereggy art in the background (some more obvious/focused on than others, like the chroma conclave rug in the magical room in Ep2), but wasn't watching for it closely

2 thread questions:
  1. Without leaning on any outside knowledge of the bard's skillset, what was Scanlan's trick against the dragon? Based on C1 I'm confident it was illusion and not teleportation but on first watch I think it's extremely easy to read the other way
  2. Is the nude P.A.R.T. in the portal painting in Episode 2 Jester's mom? I'm voting Ruby of the Sea here.

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

hollylolly posted:

I believe that was a dragonborn. She had a snout.
Boo!!! Fine then. A dragiantart commission of the ruby of the sea, whatever.

Nemo2342 posted:

Early Vox Machina are pretty lovely people at the start, and 70+ hours to get to a part where they go from jackasses to jackasses who actually mean well is a tough sell.
Hell we're seeing that with one hour right now. Lightly optimistic that since they're already foreshadowing Vax and Keyleth and slightly less so Vex and Percy they'll also be starting character growth that wasn't really present yet for the briarwood arc on stream.

Silynt posted:

I haven’t watched yet so I don’t know how well it ties in, but sight unseen I do think that it was a mistake to start with 2 disconnected episodes before getting to the main season arc. Seems like it could turn off people who don’t know that there’s a longer and presumably more interesting story arc incoming.
I had a much longer and more annoyingly :goonsay: reply but I'll save that until I rewatch and still probably leave it in drafts.

The intent pretty clearly seemed to be to introduce the world and Vox Machina's place in it prior to getting to the Briarwood arc. I'm guessing those ITT who didn't see campaign 1 have no idea that 75+ hrs of stream content gets skipped over between killing the dragon and meeting the briarwoods in the closing minutes of episode 2--so they link it together well enough. With that said, I'm not sure how well they did with making new viewers care about the characters and Percy in particular, which is largely the point of pilots that don't dive straight into the big story (Train Job vs Serenity in Firefly was for years the goto example of the difference). It is funny you raise it as being disconnected from the main story arc since (Season... 2? I think? spoilers)It goes well out of its way to set up the chroma conclave arc. It's the sort of planning you can do when you start with a 2 season order. I'm curious if there'll be a Bojackish reevaluation of the first couple episodes after the Conclave arc plays out, since I do think that groundwork contributes mightily to the pacing problems

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
^^^Underdark arc was worth it for Clarota :colbert:

ApeHawk posted:

As someone who has never watched C1, how close is this show to the source material so far? Obviously some stuff has been changed for storytelling reasons, but I'd love to know if it remains faithful in any way.

The first two episodes are pre-stream, so not much to say other than it meshes with the descriptions cast have previously given of that arc and the dragon's battle. On the stream, Percy is given a heads up in advance that the Briarwoods will be at the feast and attends disguised as Vax (while Vax does espionage poo poo and other things including sneaking in to the bedroom with disastrous consequences)

I love Tal's reaction to the Briarwoods first coming up
https://mobile.twitter.com/ArseQueef/status/1487245284237271040
(Flashbacks to the cast all looking younger af and the hideous Geek and Sundry set)

"You look delicious", selfdefenestration, birdKeyleth, Vax getting knocked out, and a lot of negating attacks made it in to the scene.

On stream, Vax is revived by Scanlan, the Briarwoods flee unsuccessfully a couple of times and Vox Machina aren't arrested (but are asked to come back the next morning). Driver still gets hosed up by Percy.

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

Robobot posted:

Awesome! Gonna watch the first three episodes sometime this weekend! What are the spoiler rules in here? Is it open discussion about the YouTube stuff or is this a new story they’re doing just for the show?

Just wanna know if I should avoid the thread all together or if it won’t really matter if I’m chatting about it in here.
We should probably formalize spoiler rules/expectations at some point... (h/t to Dexo for raising that and being ignored). Thus far, folks have been pretty good about tagging things that tie in to what they've said they plan to cover on the show. I can't promise that A: folks will stick to that and B: there won't be inadvertant leakage (which reminds me to clean up a bit of post 2)

The first two episodes are a canon story that happened before the youtube/stream started... so like adapting a star wars EU novel? Not new but it's a relatively small set of fans who knew anything about it. To the best of our knowledge, everything beginning in Ep 3 is adapted directly from major plot arcs in the stream with some tweaks, changes, and time jumps. With that said, if you're feeling ambivalent after two, know that the consensus of the reviewers (who saw through 6) is that if you liked episode 3 more than the first 2, stick around through next week

If people geeking out about a character's first appearance or being inexplicably excited about someone's weapon will lessen your enjoyment because it hints that it'll be something important to come in the future, you may want to skip the thread. But thus far we've not seen anything like "it's really cool that character accidentally attacks his teammate this way because that's how he'll eventually kill her when he betrays the group later"

Either way, welcome and I selfishly hope you stay and :justpost: because it's awesome to hear the thoughts of people whose first exposure to this world and these loveable fuckups is the cartoon!

Hollismason posted:

Overall I liked this show and I have limited exposure to Critical Role , only learning about it here on the forums. Its good though the first 3 episodes are good.
:hellyeah:

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

Philthy posted:

Otherwise, we'd hear Grog wanting to "get angry" instead of rage. Or Scanlan casting "purple hand" instead of "Bigby's Hand" etc.
I mean, it's literally cast as Scanlan's hand in the animated series but I take the point and that could just as easily be not wanting to confuse viewers ("who the gently caress is Bigsby? I thought he was Scanlan")

In other news, a reminder that there's a Twitch Watch Party at 7pm PT tomorrow (Tuesday 2/1) with the cast -- which could provide that live broadcast feel for anyone looking to watch/rewatch together. I don't know that I'll be able to make it, but wanted to mention it to anyone interested.

Depending on how that goes and when the next tranche of episodes actually hit Prime, may ask someone (you there, Ath?) to change the thread title to include something like "Release Thurs Night, Watch Party following Tues"

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
Also apparently the storyboard team was bored early during production. I'd watch a feature length documentary on the how and why of this gorgeous piece of art.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Kenyu05/status/1488289600002949125

Eta: also thriller
https://mobile.twitter.com/Kattakind/status/1488317076682903553

Paracaidas fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Feb 1, 2022

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
:siren: CAST WATCH PARTY STREAMING ON TWITCH HOSTED BY MICA BURTON NOWWWW:siren: i may just gdt/tviv it

E: Sam making Mica regret hosting immediately

Tinydryad posted:

I've played some D&D but not lots. I liked the show! My husband and I laughed at the jokes, and speculated about what spells they were using. I'm looking forward to more.
Welcome! Glad you're enjoying and getting your friend off your back without a hundreds of hours commitment!

Robobot posted:

Maybe it's just because the actual character backstories and main storyline haven't kicked off yet, but my goodness everything about the main cast is amazingly generic. Maybe that's on purpose (I know they're based on a bunch of friends goofing off in a D&D game) and I'm assuming they'll be fleshed out a lot more as the series goes on. Dragon episodes weren't really doing it for me, but I did like the dinner party episode because it felt like something was starting to happen.

The dialogue is pretty good and I can tell the actors are having a good time with their characters. Really my only complaint is how "by the books" everything is, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing if the characters start to drive the story. All in all I'd say so far I've enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next episode.

Also the fights were fun, I like the animation style, I like the character designs, I like the acting, and I like most of the humor.

Trinket rules.
Trinket looking for pets outside the palace was my favorite rewatch pickup for sure. Really appreciate you sticking around to share perspective. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the next 3 :getin:

Paracaidas fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Feb 2, 2022

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

Ultimate Mango posted:

So, Twitch Watch Parties work on desktop machines and iPads but not AppleTV for some reason? Ugh.

I just want to watch this like a dvd commentary track.
I ran into the same issue and then real life intervened. Enterprising souls can keep trying or try next week if they'd like though. I'll probably multidevice/rifftrax it once it goes VOD and I have a minute

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
Whenever Tiberius isn't on screen, the other characters should be asking "where's Tiberius?" and the answer should be that "he's attempting to buy every mirror in the city and painstakingly role-playing all of his mundane errands before he discovers his planet needs him and he has to go".

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

CuwiKhons posted:

it's Orion's worst showing by far and it's wildly uncomfortable to watch.

Dameius posted:

Travis (Grog) hates shopping episodes and Orion would spotlight steal by going on exceptionally long solo shopping adventures and towards the end it looked like Travis was struggling to keep composure on camera during them.

just an excerpt of the cast's reaction to a small portion of Orion's errands that episode posted:

ORION: Can we infuse a Fog spell with a Sleep spell?

MATT: No.

ORION: Can we try super hard?

MATT: Sure. Make a roll.

ORION: God drat it. Okay.

MARISHA(Keyleth): Like, the best I could possibly do is maybe take one of these holy water things.

ORION: What am I rolling?

MATT: Plus arcana.

TRAVIS(grog): Do you think it matters? No.

ORION: 24.

MATT: 24. Okay. After spending approximately 500 gold in materials, the enchantment fails, both spells fizzled. You lost 500 gold. But now you know. Probably can’t combine two spells into a single enchantment.

LIAM(Vax): And knowing is half the battle.

ORION: Don’t worry, it came out of my pocket.

SAM(Scanlan): I’ve got fog.

ORION: Okay.

TRAVIS(Grog): How about you get nothing else, and we move on?

ORION: Last thing.

TRAVIS: No last thing.

ORION: I stop at Allura’s.

MATT: You go towards the Cloudtop District, and the guards stop you again.

ORION: I remember that as I walk up, and I go back to Greyskull Keep.

MATT: All right.

MARISHA: Oh wait, I don’t do that.

ORION: Oh wait, I don’t do that.

MARISHA: #OrionAcaba.

ORION: I realize what I’m doing, and I stop.

LIAM: Also. This will just take ten seconds, at some point in the week, when Keyleth is taking a walk, I go into her garden, and I clip one flower, and I take it.
(Spoiler, he didn't actually stop)

Paracaidas fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Feb 3, 2022

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
In non intracast drama news.... new episodes tonight, right??

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

lemonadesweetheart posted:

Is it Friday yet...

Well played :golfclap: I'm hoping that it drops at midnight GMT like the first week did..maybe? Something to get me through this hell day and knee deep into the briarwood arc??

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
A clip from tonight's episode. That's a steep tonal shift and I am so excited
https://mobile.twitter.com/CriticalRole/status/1489285464259325953

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
Yeah they are

I do really love them sprinkling Your Turn To Roll throughout.

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
Ashley is way too drat good at playing heartbreaking. Love leaning more into her and Grog's dynamic

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
Creepy poo poo incoming indeed

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

eke out posted:

e4 written by ashly burch, cool

Oh no! Percy! Someone save him

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
loving Blindspot man

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
For those who didn't watch the stream: Vex is notoriously cheap

zippertwat

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
Holy poo poo they're going to actually do the sun tree

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
Jesus they really nailed the horror of that moment

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
loving Gina Torres, man.

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
Holy poo poo the planning sequence

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

Push El Burrito posted:

The worthless, worthless planning sequences.

Sorry, can't hear you over Minxie :xd:

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
Fluffer

And I can not stress this enough

NUTTER

This trio of episodes was so loving good

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

Robobot posted:

I’m glad I stuck with it. These last three episodes were much better than the first three.

I also tried watching that one episode of the YouTube show and holy hell is watching other people play D&D boring. Really not my thing at all. I’m glad it got so popular though because I’m liking the cartoon.
There are some moments that the format and everyone's reactions to each other make super super cool. But also yeah, if the format doesn't do it for you it's not worth the time at all. Personally I was looking for a podcast to fall asleep to with a big back catalog and this fit the bill so nicely. Eventually I got hooked enough to watch and now here I am, wasting hours of my life per week :shrug:

Robobot posted:

Edit edit:
This post seems a bit down for how much I enjoyed the episodes, so I’m just gonna list some more things I liked about them:
Glad you stuck with it too, for the record! After the first three episodes I wasn't sure how well they'd highlight grog and pike but I've been happy with it! Glad to hear it's shining through on its own merits too!

Thread question I can't be bothered to look up:

1. With the episode ending on the burning building in the distance and the resistance rising up does that mean we're not getting scanbo?? Or do I have my timelines off?

Lotus Aura posted:

I feel like while episode 3 was where the show stopped being bad, episode 4 is where it actually started being good. Like it properly hit its stride at last.
It'll be fun to look at all of this season as a whole at some point (probably before S2)-- I'm wondering how much having the week off and the generally weaker first 2 episodes are tainting my impression of episode 3 in particular. Will it feel more natural when it flows immediately in to episode 4? :shrug:

I'm really pretty happy with how all the relationships are being handled thus far. And that Pike is on screen and not at NBC!

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
As an example of a moment that the stream's format really made hit, and how well they translated it to the show.

https://mobile.twitter.com/dinasbracelet_/status/1489403690243010560

And the video format all cued up: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yE27NwtXjPY&t=9553s

The way the horror spreads across the cast as they cotton on at different moments and how much glee Matt takes from it is just fantastic. It's Vax, Vex, Grog left to right across the top and Percy, Keyleth, Scanlan on your bottom screen.

CuwiKhons posted:

Your timeline's off. VM killed Kerrion Stonefell as a group but then they split up to hit Duke Vedmeyer and Count Tylieri's house at the same time. Scanbo was him vs Vedmeyer.
Oh thank gently caress. What a relief.

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!

Robobot posted:

I tried watching this, since I figured a good well liked scene might be more indicative of the show instead of watching "the worst episode ever" and making a decision. Still extremely not my thing. Never got into Let's Plays or anything either, so I think watching people play non-competitive games just isn't something I find interesting.
Definitely not everybody's bag, but very glad you're liking the animated series!

Push El Burrito posted:

The best kills scene was very good. It had Hotis and the duergar that Keyleth slowly murdered and the bulette Grog bit the tongue off of.
I thought this was an extremely effective way to slip fun stream moments into the show without much buildup or explanation time and in a way that helped solidify each character's personalities!

Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
^^:hellyeah:

Escobarbarian posted:

My main issue is that I feel like there’s very little if anything in here that feels like it really came from the characters improvising or loving around. Like it doesn’t feel like a podcast adaptation at all, it just feels like something that was scripted normally, with all the jokes feeling like…..regular scripted jokes.
This is a super interesting perspective and I appreciate you sharing it. It's tough for me to separate my podcast experience where I see the episodes and find myself impressed by how well they incorporated improvised or unintended moments into a sensible story beat- as a few examples:
  • Failing to unlock the door, with all the associated chaos and shenanigans, solely because Liam(Vax) and Sam(Scanlan) rolled like poo poo
  • Keyleth slowly and horrifyingly murdering the Deurgar
  • Pike separating from the group to reconnect with her deity... because Ashley had to routinely leave to film Blindspot in New York and calling in for a 4 hour session starting at 10pm ET wasn't a sustainable plan
In addition to specific dialogue here and there being pulled from the podcast or improvised during recording (cast mentioned a few during the last watchalong). So I see the roots of that improv and am impressed at how it has been wrapped together (Grog and Pike as probably the strongest example, getting depth built across hours of conversations and battles across in minutes of screentime)... but where you're coming from makes total sense! It bums me out some, because one of my favorite parts of the podcast and what really got me engaged (as the first actual play I ever listened to) was the sense that anything could happen, that everything was a bad roll or two away from going awry at all times and that those mistakes and bad rolls can have lethal consequences--that no character has plot armor, so things like Vax getting caught by the Briarwoods in Ep3 or the undead ambush in Ep4 weren't just "minor battles to advance the plot" but "holy poo poo any of these characters might die if this goes wrong". It's a bummer to hear that energy isn't flowing into the animated series for new viewers.


lemonadesweetheart posted:

It was never going to be what you wanted.
I mean, it's not unheard of? Harmonquest had a vibe that sounds much more like what Escobarbarian is looking for on a much, much lower budget... and it's the closest comparison that comes to mind for "animated D&D series". Legend of Vox Machina went a very different direction and is probably better for it, but it was definitely at the cost of that vibe and there's nothing wrong with preferring it the other way! Also I'm pretty sure Esco's not an existing critter, for what it's worth. That's feedback from the new audience

Circling back to a comment I made last week after the first 3:

Paracaidas posted:

On rewatch there'll be 2 main things I'll be looking for:
  1. Do they do enough to show that the party got lucky against the dragon? The Briarwood introduction is villainous and menacing as hell and conveys that these aren't ordinary people (or ordinary evil), but they're not a loving dragon. Did they leave enough room in the first two episodes that next week's trio of episodes can build them as a credible threat to Vox Machina? Or did they set themselves the standard comic peril inflation problem?
I would definitely say that they left themselves the space to establish the briarwoods as creepy, powerful villains and did enough to build their whole group as credibly threatening... but that's also with my stream knowledge. Maybe those who are fresh to this would disagree?

Paracaidas fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Feb 4, 2022

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Paracaidas
Sep 24, 2016
Consistently Tedious!
https://mobile.twitter.com/EmmaFyffe/status/1490756354729865218

While one can only get so drunk during a half hour episode, also play with caution.

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