Lou, telepathically: Marisha, did you watch A Crown of Candy Marisha: Huh? Lou: Right. Cool. Here he comes. Second verse, same as the first

And at 11:50 he reacts three full seconds before anyone else, knowing exactly the kind of thing Brennan is about to pull.

@@fluidstatic5564 wait what part of ACOC are you referencing- I really want to rewatch it now

@@tylllerrr1788 When Calroy betrayed Amethar

I think it's more "I'm seeing a master storyteller in full glory. And the f**kery doesnt involve me"

Exactly. Zerxus is stupid as they come

LMAO

“So…you danced with the devil in the pale moonlight.”

Well when you say it like that It sounds like bad idea

Right up there with "You're the face I saw when murder entered my heart."

Wouldn't necessarily called it "coldest" since it is searing hot with hatred.

Literally and when he says that it doesn’t come from a place of ignorance or unknowing hatred. It comes from a deep anger where he wants them to KNOW they deserve it.

​@@dalimoreomali2994 What's this in reference to?

@@kanavdwevedi826 Percy

Not just the PC, the PLAYERS themselves!

@@magiv4205 And not just the players, the viewers. There were dozens, maybe hundreds, of comments talking about how Asmodeus wasn't that bad, that maybe the Prime Deities were just the ones who wrote the history because they were the victors. There were videos talking about how all this changes how we perceive the Betrayer Gods. I even had one person respond that I couldn't know that Asmodeus was evil because he may not be the same as he is in the lore of other settings, they were so taken in by his introduction. Brennan was a masterclass in playing him.

@@Dragon_Lair Oh absolutely! I found it absolutely fascinating to read the comments and see how many people were fooled by Brennan when I was just waiting for the inevitable rug-pull. Brennan truly puts the "master" in "game master".

@@Dragon_Lair Those people were incredibly misinformed, had presumably not watched a lot of CR and were additionally unbelievably naive if they honestly thought that Asmodeus was "not so bad"... We *know* what happens during the Calamity. We also *know* how Pelor is (including his commandments) and how he treats those who come to his realm, and we additionally know how devils act and how Asmodeus treats those in his realm, all this based on previous CR campaigns. We *also* know, based on EXU:Calamity, what the K'nauthi are, what the word means, and what is done to them both physically (cutting off eyelids and lips, i.e. disfiguring them) and spiritually (using them as conduits rather than people and not giving a shit about the tumours that it results in). We *know* what devils do in this world also, it is stated multiple times that devils are attacking the civilian populace. Those are all under Asmodeus command. Who would be fool enough to believe that he is really a good guy, or that he is somehow redeemable if you only reach into his soul?

I think this says a lot about Luis too, he played along amazingly. Most players at my table would have said "nah he's THE devil himself, I'm not trusting him" but Luis went for the drama and it absolutely paid off

No wonder he got a Mortal Kombat death. It takes a lot of idiocy to think you can tell a archfiend, a Lord of Hells, who they are and who they should be.

@@foolslayer9416 I mean, you CAN, but the consequences are on you

I love how through Zerxus’ whole diatribe, Brennan just has this look of nonchalant disgust on his face. They’re both get so into the character during this whole exchange.

It either takes a lot of stupidity or a lot of ignorance to think you can tell a god who they are and who they should be.

He had that "you're wrong, but go on I wanna hear this" look 😂

@@superhero6785 It's the "I'm finally at a point in my plan where I don't need to use puppets anymore, so I'm just enjoying listening to not-puppets who will do what I want in the end anyway," look.

@@foolslayer9416 The entire theme of Calamity was how filled with hubris the powerful people of Avalir are, and how it blinds them to their own flaws and the consequences of their actions. As Asmodeus says, Zerxus is an incredibly proud man, and that pride is misplaced. That combines with his endless desire to redeem everyone and makes him the easiest prey of the whole cast for Asmodeus' plan.

In any campaign.

I love that line. Goes together well with, "He doesn't hate in an alien way. He wants you to know, that you deserve it."

It's even more impressive because it followed up on Xerxes' own arrogance in believing he could change the Lord of the Hells to be what he (Xerxes) believes him to be, called him (Asmodeus) a child, and felt he knew better than Asmodeus himself the nature of his own divine being and history. Xerxes was truly arrogant and proud, and he did look down on ALL the gods and felt himself better than them. Going back to episode 1, his speech about how he denies all the gods and bows to none.

It comes off as arrogance but that last line is very true. We should pull people forward in life, not lift them up. Because it does imply a certain hierarchy in our society that we shouldn't believe in.

@@Eadwulf_Skald The world of D&D and Exandria is NOT our society.

@@Dragon_Lair Same principle applies though? Asmodeus is the Lord of Hells and he has a problem with arrogance. That's obvious because he followed up the statement with "I'm beneath nobody". It doesn't go against my point since the idea of "reaching down" is toxic. Zerxus has a saviour complex with a side of hubris. That makes him think he's better than people ie reaching down to help them up.

​@@Eadwulf_Skald Slow your roll bud, no heirarchy at all? Bet, enjoy your chaos and mass death then 🤷‍♀️

Zerxus being tugged in with promises of finding Evandrin, Anakin desperate to save Padmé... both Asmodeus & Sidious spinning a web of fake-frailty and twisted truths... yep that's a raw deal if I've ever saw one XD What I find unnerving & fascinating tho, is how Zerxus' worldview hinged on extending compassion to redeem those considered irredeemable. That idea is ultimately his downfall here, but under different circumstances it's the ultimate *triumph* of Luke extending the same hand towards Anakin. I didn't expect Brennan to take this route in the game but by god he executes it to perfection

@@CelestiaLily Luke wasn't a naive arrogant fool though. If he was, he would've try to redeem Palpatine instead

@@digitaldevil696 THAT would've been interesting to see - and probably would've ended up something like this. Luke would've taken Vader down and replaced him as ol' Palp's right hand man.

that line sent shivers all the way through me when he said it. you could feel the change in tone so suddenly it jerked me out of my seat

Yes it was a very powerful moment when it became clear that the Lord of Hell wasn't just some misunderstood being who got a raw deal. Another one as when he talked about regretting that he only had eternity to punish everyone

I really don't think any moment in DnD tops this for me. I'll be rewatching this for years

Storytelling AND improvisation AND voice acting. The line had to be improvised, since Brandon couldn't know beforehand about Zerxes attempt of Atonement. And he doesn't just pronounce "wrong" differently - the whole line had a progressive change in tone and the manner of speaking. To improvise a climax line to a deep narrative and paint in in all the colors on the fly is exceptional.

@@KidoKoin Yeah, you can hear that quietly enraged snarl building up throughout the entire sentence, until he practically spits the last words at Zerxus. Masterful work.

Makes me wonder what the conversation was between Marisha and Matt who she got home. Babe, Brendan legit scares the shit out of me."

​@@CEllis1036Matt's villains are complex and charismatic as all hell. I love watching them. Brennan's villains tho? Brennan's are terrifying. I'd be hiding under the table too.

@@burgervonstadt6503 That's why Lou and Aabria are nonplussed by this whole ordeal. It's pretty much the"first time?" meme all throughout the scenario.

The cast of EXU : Calamity is getting betrayed by the devil in an extremely serious campaign setting up the apocalypse of that world. Lou got his heart broken by a piece of cake in striped pantaloons. Lou know Brennan's siren song.

Dude was straight-up covering his face and peeking between his fingers. If you haven't yet, just watch the scenes looking only at Lou. It's hilarious.

Where can I get more of Brennan???? What dimension 20 should I watch??

@@Tiredchef the vast majority of them. He’s usually DM. He’s PC in one or two.

@@Tiredchef I just did both seasons of Unsleeping City, the lore is mostly great (some jingoist NYC stuff tho, like the subway fight) and so are the PCs

Interestingly, Luis said in the Twitter meeting of the casts that Zerxus had daddy issue. As in he is the dad who miss his son and emotionally latched on to Asmodeus as a son figure. Luis said that he didn't try to be romantic about it.

Yeah I heard about that! Actually makes his acting choices much richer and more interesting to look back on.

@@Blue_Lunacy So what you're saying is that Asmodeus has a daddy kink

@@Blue_Lunacy I think he meant romantic in the "romanticised" sense, not as in the "romance subplot" sense. We romanticise the past a lot, but that doesn't mean we want to bone the Victorian age as a concept.

@@ToaArcan Well... I saw some tame fanart. Some fans see them in a romance sense. As in they bang sense and on the Victorian style.

"Cool, so he spent his 9th level spell slot!" "He spent A 9th level spell slot" "...what?"

@@High-LordHarza He did cast a modified time stop twice, so I think it’s safe to say he has infinite 9th level spell slots.

@@spartaneternal8423 Yep, exactly

​@@spartaneternal8423 spoilers if u havent watched C1, but I really like this power display of a fully realised evil god Azmodeus compared to Vecna's obviously weaker power scale in the end fight of C1 due to him not understanding the full potential of his godhood just yet, Vecna had only access to 2 9th level spell slot I think and could be defeated by a group of highly trained and dedicated mortals. Vecna feels like he's just starting out as a level 1 god and Asmodeus is out there swinging with his level 10 god-class features

@@spartaneternal8423 Makes sense when you think about it. High level clerics get their spells from the gods. Granted the number of 9th level casting clerics for each god isn't SUPER high, the gods aren't going to be handing out all of their own power either.

I don't mean to say this like I'm joking about it, I really hope he doesn't start smoking again. I genuinely hope he's okay

Lol, Brennan sure has a penchant for stabbing lou's characters in the back.

@@jlaw2895 Literally.

@@jlaw2895 My favorite part about that, is that Brennan has stabbed Lou in the back twice but Lou has yet to go down afterward. Amazing!!!

@@mylifeafterbreakfast The Dragon and The Unfallen!

If you know anything about manipulation or if you've seen Brennan DM at all the warning bells would've been going off. Ozzie's opening dream sequence gives us no context, which is a flag redder than his complexion.

@@belindaluna2067 I've been watching his stuff since Fantasy High Season 1. Bells were going off, sure, but I didn't know, I wasn't confident enough to say, most DMs don't keep up the lie like this for as long as Brennan did. Personally, I've been seeing comments like this every now and then. It feels to me more like reflexive 'I don't want to admit I was fooled' vibes. Sure, maybe in retrospect, now that the twist is revealed. Not in the week to week wait though. When he dropped exposition, it felt like a DM simply dropping exposition as the DM does through an NPC, in a manner that signals to us, as players, in a meta way, 'this is the truth' ergo 'this person is wholly speaking the truth'. In the space between episodes, it made doubt percolate in just the most lovely way, and frankly, what isn't tantalizing about the Lord of Hell being the good guy?

@@scolkereybel that's a good distinction. I have comments around from week to week stating that this would happen, but not because I knew. It was because I had trust in Brennan not to stick to the trope of the misunderstood devil and to uphold the cosmology of Matt's world. Not to make Asmodeus the villain who's secretly good, but the villain whom has good reasons why he is bad. Even then, it's a microcosm of the miniseries. We knew the Calamity would happen, and in the last episode we knew they would avert the primordials, and observable people knew the continent would be destroyed, but not how they would get there. Same goes for me with Asmodeus' heel turn. It was really masterfully done.

@atombrain111 ....The Calamity was a foregone conclusion, (unless they made those 4 natural 20's in a row) and anyone who wasn't going into this new to Critical Role should've known that. So there's no reason I can pick up on why people who watch CR should be upset about that. Also I don't know what that has to do with Asmodeus's characterization. Vespin's role in the Calamity was also a foregone conclusion, but we got more insight into his character and got to see he was really trying to do something good (even if wizard hubris caused him to fail spectacularly) which is more than we knew about him before this miniseries. Brennan (and Matt) could've done the same with Ozzie if they wanted and still have the Calamity happen. They just didn't want to.

Was not fooled in the least, and I doubt any DM of any experience was either. Asmodeus is the god of hell. He's literally titled "The Lord of Lies", and all good lies share one trait - that they are "mostly" true.

the only time he gets flustered is when Emily Axford punks his ass.

This is why they don't give gods printed stat blocks.

@@orwin5445 aside from the fact that they have in previous editions and in 5e they have as well.

@@thedarkness125 they learned their lessons from the prior versions and the 5e versions all have god* with that asterisk being pretty huge. They're either weakened in some way or just avatars thereof and other "you couldn't handle my true powers" going on.

@@orwin5445 I think straight up no stat blocks is kinda lame, you might as well be fighting a cutscene. They should give gods stat blocks, just make them ridiculously op compared to even max level characters that they're nigh impossible to beat, but at least there's a fool's chance

Oh 100%

Oh man, imagine having PiP of Matt watching this live would have been amazing.

Should have just had a Matt-Cam in the bottom corner

Steepled fingers, poker face... Until 8:37, when he leans back and laughs. "Good work, Brennan."

Probably ecstatic and, in a small tiny place, jealous. I can't think of the last time Matt put so much raw, believable emotion into a performance. The player characters have. Travis, Sam, and Liam, specifically have had high peaks imo. Matt is a great world builder, though.

@@Promance2300 It all comes down to different DM styles. Matt's performances are endearing and really quirky, but they arent meant to build drama or suspense. He lets the plot, the storytelling and the worldbuilding do that. Brennan engages much more with the players and lets the characters make the "GOT YOU" moment. Both are amazing and masters of their craft.

Zerxus actually did not have "several" hundred HP, I think he only had like 147 HP. That said - the dialogue (especially from Brennan) makes up for the discrepancy.

if he did "go down" asmo would have just healed him so it legit didnt matter.

Even then I think the rule of cool is exactly for this kind of situation.

I'm confused are they saying that he could survive a blow that Asmodeus wanted to be at least almost lethal? Cause holy fuck if basically mega satan impales you, I don't care how much hp you have. In the end, us as an audience don't get to decide what mega satan can do. The dm does.

@@somedouchemcbag987 rule of cool over everything

lmao yeah

So funny - he looks like he has a headache

You can tell Aabria knows something is up, too, and she's just holding it in as hard as she can until that "I didn't do anything wrong."

@@yukito098 You can tell Luis knows too, he's just extremely good at staying in character. That's probably the most impressive thing about this whole sequence to me, not having seen him play before. I know people like Brennan are fucking incredible at this, but as an audience member seeing Luis play for the first time, seeing his ability to stay so profoundly immersed in a character and really get sucked into amplifying that character's core flaws to unimaginable extremes was so cool. Luis jumped headfirst into the most dramatic actions possible through pure instinct, completely shutting down any sense of self-preservation or better judgment he has a player would have in this situation, because that's what his character would do and that's what would be the most interesting at the table and in the story arc. It's like the platonic ideal of what a player should be doing in a situation like this. And holy crap did it pay off. That entire episode is one of my favorite actual play episodes ever made.

Can't imagine how painful seeing Asmodeus's portrayal was up to this point for those who knew the lore. The Lord of Lies, indeed.

I love that their movements are almost the same

Lou: Help. It's again.

It's always looked like the CR mains are all have this "why are the D20 mains acting so weird? Oh, this must be the famed BLM rug pull. Wonder what he's gonHOLY SHIT" thing going on. Like, Travis and Marisha are distinctly aware something nutty is about to go down. Sam has his calculating face on. They just don't know it's going to be such steel chair. But Lou is 100 percent "this mother fucker" and all he can do is watch Rome burn.

MCDM's Illrigger class is a great way to go for infernally powered characters as well!

absolutely you can

@@ionfalcom1 Pact of the Fiend is this scenario right here.

What about Brennan's "You think people make choices? No. People think they make choices, they think they're going to turn right or left, but they didn't build the roads. The big choices already got made for them a long time ago."

I’ve never quite understood that word

​@@GrndAdmiralThrawn Himbo? It is a beefy, stupid, but kindly man.

Zerxus is not a himbo, he was just very prideful and arrogant. A himbo must be dumb, actively stupid and lacking common sense. Zerxus gave someone the benefit of the doubt and was betrayed for it, which is more of a mistake than actively being stupid.

@@thevoidlord1796 If thinking the actual, literal devil, lord of lies, creator of all evil in the world, is redeemable because he looks like your husband ISN'T actively stupid, you'll kinda have a hard time finding something that is. It's hot, it's good storytelling, it's understandable in a way, it's thoroughly entertaining - and also really fucking stupid. And stupid and arrogant aren't exactly mutually exclusive.

@@Vohalika zerxus, much like the prideful mages of the time, believed that the gods were not beyond the reach of men.

Yeaaaaah that's going in the "badass villain lines that I stole from somewhere" vault.

At this point I think Brennan is just the canon voice of Asmodeus

This was a FULLY REALIZED GOD, not one that had truly just became one and still had to make a mark on the world to be widely known. If he wanted too the Ring of Brass wouldn’t have gotten a chance to recover. I’m glad they did, but there was no way they were fighting him directly.

@@emmarod8746 I actually like how, gamewise, the Big Bad that they fight wasn’t Asmodeus directly. That would have been either a curb stomp or some canon-breaking victory. Instead, Asmodeus leaves to go destroy the world, and they fight his most powerful servant, who didn’t have a canonical fate yet.

@@GrndAdmiralThrawn Yup, thats probably one the best ways to go about having a strong NPC be in your game, but not underming its power or your player’s agency by having them face a minion/ally of the character that they can win against.

Mechanically there is quite the level differential. As the characters are only level 14.

@@benjaminmatheny6683 they should have been level 20 the outcome would have been the exact same, but it would have driven home how powerful asmodeus is

If you’re familiar with Vampire: the Masquerade, and especially with the Bloodlines PC game that was made like twenty years ago, Luis made some guest appearances in the VtM live play series LA By Night as Nines Rodriguez. He was excellent there, too.

you HAVE to watch brennan and luis in candela obscura

"Goodness, you really *don't* learn do you... have a seat, I will be with you shortly."

*Breaks your back -Fatality!!!, heals you, casts modify memory* “Asmodeus I’ve come to bargain!” *repeats first step with more MK flavor

Doctor Strange would've seen Asmodeus' deception from a mile away.

Some people don’t want to listen to reason. A being known as “the lord of the hells” is a being you probably shouldn’t trust under 99.999… percent of the time

@@jaredsousa9356 if the title FATHER OF LIES wasn't a dead give away. PPL are forever trying to find fault in the "good" because we are ashamed of the "bad" within themselves. Until we can accept and forgive yourself and others, we'll always be chumps for this kinda manipulation.

Há...ppl often forget that in the greek mythology, Hades was considered a bad god, something evil, shunned even by the the others Olympians, and yet, he was forced to rule the underworld, to become the god of death... Stories can go the usual, boring good and evil and black and white, or they can be a little more mature and go to the gray zone, where there's no villains and hero...just interests. Now, what's better, that's up to personal taste but, at that point, the story could go anywhere, no one had enough information, asides from legends, so chill bro...

@@Daggerom In the DnD and Axandria Mythos , and in this very session: Asmodeous even refers to himself as "The Father of Lies" . Furthermore Devils in this genre are well known to be smooth talking masters of manipulation . Exactly everyone had enough information to make the call. lol.

Some people nowadays want every villain to be redeemable or have a reason for their villainy, when some villains neither want nor deserve redemption. Brennan’s Asmodeus was a more complete version of the Devil than I ever learned about growing up in a religious family.

It’s worth it - from a very inconsistent critter

Luis did a fist pump when he heard that Zexus' face was being ripped off. He was 100% committed to pulling the thread XD.

​@@Birthday888forget pulling the thread until the sweater was gone, he was committed to pulling until that sweater thread ground him to dust 😅

Being a philosophy major with years of improv practice helps tremendously.

Except for Lou whose thousand yard stare and positioning to get out of his chair is the posture of a man who has been burned too many times. He knew EXACTLY what was coming. He tries to tell Marisha right before, but she was too wrapped up in Brennan's performance.

Actually, Spoilers for Campaign 1 That was ALSO Vecna as a real God on the material plane, not an avatar from beyond the Divine Gate, that was the whole problem lol. But he was a brand new god and hadn't fully realized his true potential. He was still learning his full powers and hadn't yet amassed a follower base to give him more power (as we have learned, the gods get at least some portion of their power from people's knowledge and or worship of them, hence the plot to destroy Vasselheim as a symbol to strike fear and awe into people's hearts). Matt made it _Very_ clear that the longer they waited to confront Vecna, the stronger he would be. They had to banish him beyond the Divine Gate before he grew too powerful. Eventually he would have (and presumably HAS in the intervening years since C1) gotten fully in control of his powers (like the Raven Queen) and been just as devastating as his original counterparts. So a fully realized God like the Lord of Lies himself, yeaaaaaaah you're Fucked lol. -Sorry to be _That_ Nerd. I just like the lore and world building a lot. 😆

@@mayaenglish5424 I don't think Vecna could grow in power at this point. He's *shackled* somewhere in the outer planes, much like the chained Oblivion, but weaker.

@@shanedsouza189 Right, although I'm not sure of the logistics because Spoilers for C2 Those shackles aren't stopping the chained oblivion from sowing seeds of chaos and having followers, I'd Imagine it would be a thousand million times worse if he _wasn't_ locked away somewhere. So does being in God Jail stop them from gaining power or is he just doing Godly bench presses in solitary? lol

Note that Brennan masterfully described looking as Asmodeus as seeing a being more real than your own self. A true god should be beyond comprehension. And of course casually break the rules mortals exist within.

It’s right after he glanced at Lou and saw how well he was bringing out anxiety

You play a stupid game, you win a stupid prize.

Not just A Devil, The Devil. This is The Worst case scenario

I'm literally tempted to calling him "Paladin of Fucking Around and Finding Out"

@@RashaundaSpears considering the fact that this dude literally sends himself to hell almost purely by the conviction that Asmodeus Can Be Redeemed, dude's gonna fuck around for a very long time

@@zacharybosley1935 Asmodeus was able to convince Sarenrae, the goddess of redemption, he wanted to be redeemed. Then he turned around and massacred her followers. Let’s be honest, Zerxus never stood a chance.

The funny thing about the Lord of Lies is that he actually always tells the truth. He just make you hear what he wants you to hear.

@@somedouchemcbag987 exactly

Yeup, definitely some Devils Advocate vibes

also in actual biblical terms this is the opposite of what God says his name is "I AM WHO I AM" so its fitting the devil would be "WHO AM I"

Lol you're joking right

I'm definitely feeling Peter Stormare a la Constantine. Or even Tilda Swinton doing an even more fucked up Gabriel

​@@sleepystar1638are you telling me Popeye is god

I know, right? Like, I thought this was going to be one of those “The gods were bad, the Devil was good all along”🙄 But nope, he’s just evil, and he played Zerxus like a fiddle.

Treating with the devil is always a bad bad thing. I now get why D&D was a witch-hunt back in the 60s. But now I’m more glad if I ever have kids, that they always make characters that are aware of the lesson in this series. There’s a mighty fine line: You can’t fix the devil if God already tried that, but a Vespin Cloras, still worth a shot.

@@Aministo When I was a kid playing Doom, my family (who is Christian) was totally OK with me playing it because I was killing demons.

@@GrndAdmiralThrawn The problem with faith isn't the concept itself, it is the people. People are what's wrong.

Ohh I’m interested to hear your changed opinion, how so? 😅😊

This revised your view of another completely fictional antagonist from Christian mythology? That doesn't make sense. That's the same silliness as when Christians started viewing Hell as literal fire and brimstone after reading Paradise Lost.

Such was Xerxes' fault. He spoke with authority because no one could challenge him and his godless paladin status in Avalir, where it was seen as a source of pride to avoid the gods and grow in power on their own. In the face of an actual god Xerxes was so certain he was right that he could not accept that he was wrong, and was too proud to accept that fact. His beliefs, his power, probably even the source of it, he is just wrong. Xerxes even called Asmodeus a lost child because he could not accept that mortals are nothing compared to the gods, and their lives only mattered to the gods that he himself rejected, the Prime Deities. It was a beautiful portrayal by Luis, to roleplay a man who felt so certain that he knew more about the nature of divinity and creation than even the gods themselves that he though he could teach them a lesson about it and about their own existence that he ultimately doomed his soul to the hells and to be a champion of Asmodeus during the calamity. Xerxes' name is probably going to be remembered throughout time by scholars as the most vicious of villains, a mortal who helped Vespen bring the Lord of the Hells into Exandria and fought in his name for who knows how long.