Critical Role: Fond Farewells

June 7, 2021 5:52 PM - Season 2, Episode 141

The Mighty Nein return to the Blooming Grove to process what they've endured and to take their first steps towards embracing whatever the future holds in store...
posted by nubs (18 comments total)

Poster's note: The 7 hour, campaign 2 finale hitting YT coincides with me starting a new job, which does mean going forward I likely won't be able to post episode threads until the evening, whenever C3 starts and for whatever special episodes might happen between now and then (the wrap-up and the VM/M9 Battle Royale might be worth threads). Not that I have to do them, of course - anyone can!
posted by nubs at 5:57 PM on June 7, 2021

This was a lovely, satisfying conclusion to the M9's story
(dangling threads for future fun notwithstanding)

I liked that characters were true to themselves - some settled down, others kept on keeping on, Molly was still a jerk..

Loved Kingsley, definitely prefer that to the actual resurrection of Molly

Teared-up several times, especially when Matt broke at the end.
posted by coriolisdave at 8:23 PM on June 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Teared-up several times, especially when Matt broke at the end.

Same here, that's where I went from misty to actual tears.

I thought it was a really satisfying ending, with a few loose threads still there to pick up on and do the occasional one-shot with.

Season 2 was my first exposure to Critical Role and I think I started watching when they were 30-40 episodes in and only caught up to live at episode 105. I am already unreasonably excited for Season 3 and completely understand and buy into the hype for this show and crew.

Maybe now I'll start back on Season 1, I've not made it past further than episode 10 so far.

And thanks nubs for posting these! I always appreciate reading the comments and thoughts of folks here, even if I don't always have anything to add myself.
posted by slimepuppy at 12:51 AM on June 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

Maybe now I'll start back on Season 1, I've not made it past further than episode 10 so far.

In all honesty, I'd start with either episode 17 (which starts Chapter 2, Adventures in Vasselheim) or episode 24 (which marks the start of the Briarwood arc, which is awesome); the problem with the first few episodes of C1 is that you drop into an arc kind of halfway through, and there are a host of technical issues they are figuring out; it makes for a bumpy introduction to the characters (who are also more caricatures than characters at that point). That being said, the climatic fight at the end of that first arc is kinda great and is worth going back to at some point.

Looks like Marisa, Travis and Matt are giving a "State of the Role" update on Thursday, so I'm interested to hear the plans for what's next - Critical Role Land, finally?
posted by nubs at 7:46 AM on June 8, 2021 [2 favorites]

But skipping the first arc means you miss out on one of Matt's truly great NPC voice performances: Clarota.
posted by The Tensor at 2:31 PM on June 8, 2021 [2 favorites]

Clarota's great, but going from the end of C2 to the beginning of C1 is jarring in a lot of ways. Try episode 1, see if it works for you, but if you're having issues I'd skip over to 24.

I generally liked the ending, I think. We watched it live up to the break, went to sleep, woke up the next morning and caught the second half on the rebroadcast, and ended up watching to noon. I do think the episode might have been better served getting split up into two parts - during the second half it was kind of hard to tell when they were shifting into epilogue mode, and there was a lot packed in.

I liked Kingsley, and thought it was interesting how he patterned himself so much after Fjord, who had already patterned himself off of so many other people. We finally found out about Caleb's second book, and Yasha got to visit Zuala's grave. Jester saying I love you and then freaking out and joking about casting modify memory was adorable, especially when Fjord reciprocated. Trent announcing that he was right outside and then setting the house on fire was an amazing moment, as was Astrid getting to set the collar.
posted by dinty_moore at 3:04 PM on June 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

In all honesty, I'd start with either episode 17 (which starts Chapter 2, Adventures in Vasselheim) or episode 24 (which marks the start of the Briarwood arc, which is awesome); the problem with the first few episodes of C1 is that you drop into an arc kind of halfway through, and there are a host of technical issues they are figuring out; it makes for a bumpy introduction to the characters (who are also more caricatures than characters at that point).

Seconded - this is basically what I did. Also you get to skip That Dude who is particularly icky.
posted by coriolisdave at 12:04 AM on June 10, 2021

I confess I haven't watched all of C2. It was just too many hours for me. I spent some time on the wiki reading about the episodes and looked up names if I got lost during streams.
posted by bleary at 9:33 AM on June 10, 2021

fan wiki recap

Dani Carr recap
posted by bleary at 10:09 AM on June 10, 2021

So what's happening during hiatus has been announced: Aabria Iyengar is going to be DM'ing a short campaign set in Taldorei thirty years after the end of Campaign 1 (so, like six years after Campaign 2), as part of something called Exandria Unlimited.

Which, I'm excited! Aimee Carrero (she-ra) is in it! Matt gets to be a player! Aabria has been amazing in everything I've seen her in (if you haven't checked out the Elder Scrolls oneshot, you should, it's great), and she's got a wonderful energy.
posted by dinty_moore at 3:22 PM on June 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

That's pretty cool that Matt gets to be a player. I remember how it was for friends who always GMd and never got to play.
posted by bleary at 5:14 PM on June 10, 2021

I've seen Matt as a player in a number of (usually WotC) one-shots, and he's SUCH A GREAT PLAYER.

Like, that shouldn't be a surprise, but.. he is! Primarily, for me, because he's so humble and generous as a player - with his acting and gaming gifts he could dominate the hell out of any table he sits at but he just.. doesn't.

Like, what sort of forever-GM finally gets to sit down and play and chooses to be a non-verbal hamster?? Someone who doesn't need to be the centre of attention, I guess.

I'm so excited for Abria and Aimee, Liam is a great choice.. I hope Ashley surprises me (she's so sweet, and everyone loves her, but I think she's far and away the weakest player at the CR table).
posted by coriolisdave at 11:13 PM on June 10, 2021

C2 wrap-up show goes this Thursday in the usual places. Regretting I didn't submit my question, which was about the skeleton in the cellar of the Leaky Tap. The VM/M9 one-shot goes Friday, 7pm pacific.
posted by nubs at 10:05 AM on June 15, 2021

Nubs, I think I saw Liam mentioning the skeleton on Twitter, so there's a very good chance it'll be addressed.

The question I'd forgotten about (I asked a couple) was whether or not Eadwulf was in Eiselcross on his way to murder a certain drow when he was called back to deal with the Vergesson heist.
posted by dinty_moore at 11:24 AM on June 15, 2021

I kind of figured somebody would ask it; I was also trying to compose a more meta question, about how/if the different party composition of the M9 from VM changed encounter balancing for Matt, but couldn't get it to something I thought was clear & concise so I just never bothered submitting.
posted by nubs at 1:16 PM on June 15, 2021

That denouement was so good. I also cried at the end.

Thanks everyone for letting me bomb your recent activity. It was nice to read all your comments.

I'm still thinking about watching C1 because from what I remember, it had a lot of raw exuberance, and not as much intensive acting and writing. I'll miss having MeFi threads to check in with after each episode. Will I grow to hate Scanlon too much though....

Not sure if I will watch post-C2 one-shots, or Exandria Unlimited... Does anyone have any pointers about which of these are the best, what's not to be missed?
posted by fleacircus at 4:48 AM on September 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

It's been fun seeing your comments! I don't know if you've seen, but there is going to be an announcement on Campaign 3 next week.

C1 had exuberance, but it also had a lot of mid-campaign Vax starting conversations. The intensity was more concentrated in a couple of the players.

I liked EXU, but it's not for everyone. The players are new,. everyone was rolling badly, and the 'plot' was unfocused (reddit, from what I could see, hated it). But everyone was super imaginative and there was so much ridiculous fun that I liked it.

My favorites of the one shots are Undeadwood (which is more intense) and the Elder Scrolls ones (which are just a lot of fun and have a stewpot feel to them) - I don't think there's a thread for them. I also liked Ashley's recent one shot that had a very old school scifi/horror feel to it.
posted by dinty_moore at 5:31 AM on September 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

To be clearer, there is a thread for Undeadwood, not for Elder Scrolls (I could create one for Elder Scrolls)
posted by dinty_moore at 10:02 AM on September 25, 2021