I want to make a Blindspot joke, but alas, I am no Sam Riegel.

@@71723 blindspot? Never heard of it, must have aired in between informorcials at 1 AM

@@gaffawebber They were quoting a joke Sam Riegel made about the show while poking fun at Ashley one time.

@@mrdrprofsteve506 yeah, had like 300 viewers?

Yeah but the writing in legends about why she was gone was really bad. It's like they couldn't decide if they wanted to replicate the game or not and ended up in a bad middle ground.

The Vine app days

Also it’s the first arc that’s really important. The things that came before it, while still fun and entertaining to listen to, don’t add much in hindsight to what was C1’s main overarching plot beyond a few character and location debuts that could easily be moved around without disrupting much. When you get down to it the main plot if CRC1 can be simplified as “Whitestone > Chroma Conclave > Whispered One” and I’m pretty sure that’s the path the animated show will follow.

There's a reason most people skip to the Briarwood arc, but im not at liberty.

Looking for Lady Kima of Vord*

@@ArtGuyCharlie It does however reveal that dark forces are constantly trying to invade/claim their forgotten artifacts. A pretty important piece of info to have going into the V**** shit. It was definitely thematically important. But for a show like this, not terribly so i guess. I still wish we got it though. People shit on it cause Tiberius and all of Orions shit that happened but the actual arc had some pretty big character growth in it I felt. Keyleth in particular had some good moments (making strong rp cholces, she wasnt just being petulant) as well as Kima, Clarota, all the duergar stuff. Kraghammer was fuckin dope and i'll fight people on that.

that is very impressive, but that's also I imagine the benefit of being based off of a dnd game with several people who, if one is being overshadowed by the others, is either specifically playing around that or not having a good time at all, and leaves probably. Thus, if the game's good, as many protagonists as you want each butting in in their own unique way is the name of the game.

Even with their context, they could’ve easily had Pike stay with the party throughout the season since they weren’t trying to be a perfect one-to-one adaptation of the stream games. It’s likely they had Pike on her own in the animated series because of the story elements they could explore with her communion with The Everlight that they wouldnt have been able to if she was stuck with the party the whole time, although it could easily be possible that they’d want to prevent the character who could just delete an army of undead en masse from completely depleting any tension they wanted to build for half the time we spend in Whitestone.

@@jtroxler8 : Honestly, I don't really see that. The tension that was the cliffhanger was the arrival of the Chroma Conclave, not Pike being absent from the party. After all, they had already gotten to Whitestone and engaged the forces there sporadically, before she Astral Projected in. In-game, Pike wasn't always with the party because nobody wanted to "jaeger" her, which is basically a player (not Matt, the DM) controlling her while Ashley Johnson wasn't there. To out it mildly, Marisha Ray has brought it up on numerous occasions that if a character is jaegered and dies while the player is absent, it would be a "d*ck move" on everybody's part.

Kailua movies are a deep analysis of the human condition tho.. okay so maybe not super deep. but they are more than just "ooooh scary monster fight scenes"

@@asimpletrashgoblin8109 The original Godzilla certainly is an analysis of the horror of nuclear war. But most of the following movies cared more about some deep message than cool monster fights.

@@dragonicdoom3772 The 2000's Japanese ones also have messages in them, as does Shin Godzilla. And a lot of them have messages in them that surround the human characters, outside of the giant monsters

@@Americanbadashh Jeez, okay that's fair, but the point stands that the average movie goer is watching them for the cool monster fights, other themes are still secondary to that.

Red Power Hour has a pretty deep analysis of King Kong vs Godzilla, actually

Man... That's a little sad. I hope you two are still in love despite things like that.

@@YourIQDoesntMeanShitToMe For sure! I'm exaggerating for humor. Really she just "doesn't get it." Similarly, I don't "get" crocheting, or animal husbandry. Our relationship has plenty of common ground and joint interests. Don't feel the need to be with someone that shares EVERY hobby with you. It's totally healthy to have personal things even if they are a big part of your life. Support is the key regardless of your level of understanding.

@@landler656 Thanks for the response, I'm really that that's the case. ^^ Happy for ya both. Say hi from me to her lol, nice wife and you're lucky to have each other!

Hello bees!

That is pretty much the mentality you should have when watching this. You really don't need to watch the irl D&D game, (for example i didn't yet), but the sudden deaths and saves come from a D1 or D20. For example, if in the game a healing spell didn't work, a character could have died. It gives you the thrill that there is NO plot armor on any character, and that's rare with todays shows

​@@toastialianSPOILERS I laughed so fucking hard when Vex just straight up DIED Percy so much as TOUCHES a dead body and BOOM she is dead Rolled a straight fucking zero and was just gone in the last 30 ish seconds of the episode They had to literally REVIVE her and had her big brother not pulled the take me card she wouldn't have made it 😂😂

I mean we still see a lot of high level Druid Spells from the game and a couple stronger cleric spells as well, not to mention that Bigby's hand is a level 5 spell as well, so the characters felt pretty powerful already. (not not mention the punishments that grog survived)

See I beg to differ. I would love an entire shopping episode where you just see how the characters interact with others. Those sorts of episodes where nothing really happens are where you lean the most about the characters

@@Ailieorz unfortunately the budget and 12 episodes per season leave very little room for non-plot related episodes

@@laylascrimgeour-brown1603 a good writer could work the plot building and moving into a shopping episode

Yeah I wish they'd kept the long rests in, especially the funny ones. The show, in my opinion, and yes I am a Critter, was paced WAY too fast... in my opinion. I think the anime is awesome, don't get me wrong, but I reeeeeeeallh wish they'd padded the run times out juuuust a little bit. Three seasons of just the first part of Campaign One would have been phenomonal in my opinion. And I really wish they'd been able to get Tiberius in there. He was an integral part of the entire thing, and the party finding his frozen corpse at Vorugaal's Lair was a major gut punch and catalyst for them going up and kicking the crap out of said Ancient White Dragon.

Definitely agree, was curious to see a non crit-role fan's take because i was always gonna love every second of it because of the previous investment.

@@sonofzeusbro never played the games but enjoyed the series so much 10/10

​@@sonofzeusbro I was also curious, because I also watched and very much enjoyed the streams but I also didn't love the show. I liked it, but had similar issues to what other people have said, with pacing, characterisation etc. Something I haven't seen is the Keyleth "Uhh I'm not sure I can do anything" when she whips out some massive vine contraption to make a sick jump at the beginning - that sort of thing where they have some incredible abilities, but in play with bad dice rolls or decision making that fleshed that sort of thing out more, but as a narrative, it worked much less in a show format. Also I was bummed about the trademark issues, I hadn't kept up with the development and that stuff bothered me, but that's more a personal thing. Not hearing Scanlan falsetto "Bigby's haaaAaAaAnd" was a loss for sure. Not hearing the name Sarenrae or Vax going "Jenga" as he shoulders out a window, that sort of thing made those parts feel odd. Grog actually saying "I would like to rage" in-universe doesn't work for me either. It's the sort of thing I feel like I'd enjoy watching clips, or a classic youtube music video fight scene compilation of.

I was so delighted that they dedicated so much time to Scanbo and that incredible encounter.

I've only played DND briefly some years ago and never watched Critical Roll. Would you still recommend it?

@@whosaidthat84 i never watched a d and d game before but this was still a fun show

@@nielskolder6434 thanks! I'll check it out

I have friends in my D&D group who are Critical Role junkies, and while I had a passing familiarity with Exandria as a setting (I own Explorer's Guide to Wildemount) I have never seen the original CR series. So I decided to give the show a watch... And yeah, Episode 1 & 2 were a bit painful to get through. Yes they had their moments, like David Tennant's role... but I paused a bit when in the first few minutes the show speed ran through as many f-bombs as it could muster, over the top violence and a sex scene. I rolled my eyes, thought "oh great, this is a show too racy to watch around my roommates" and walked away before I sat back down and gave it another go. I was worried the show would go for cheap thrills and try and be "look we are SOOOO ADULT, we have secks and say fucs" and lack any real narrative meat to it. And dang, I cannot lie the indeed Episode 3 is where the show goes from "generically passable" to "holy shit this is great," especially with everything revealed about Percy in that episode. Suddenly the characters went from "gunslinger, ranger, barbarian, bard, etc." in my mind as they crystallized into "Percy, Vex, Grog, Scanlan, etc." and the character arcs just got stronger from there on out. It probably helped that those were the episodes that started pulling from the source material, but everything about Percy's quest to put the Briarwoods into a shallow grave just was enthralling. By the end of it, especially those final few episodes in Whitestone I was fully onboard. "Darling, take of the mask" lives in my head rent free now. So yeah, I have to say that while the first two episodes do a large amount of exposition dumping and trying to set up the characters the show gets enjoyable from 3-10... I even went back and rewatched a bit of those early episodes and they just painfully pale in comparison to what happens in the latter half. I hope the showrunners understand that, and Season 2 can lean into the strengths those later episodes in Season 1 had. I had to buy a copy of the Tal'Dorei setting book, and am seriously considering picking up the new Call of the Netherdeep adventure to try running; since I feel really invested in this setting now. Seriously looking forward to Season 2, and hoping they keep the strengths up.

Ahhh nice nice! I have been putting off watching the show for a long time and only today had the idea to maybe start at Episode 3 and skip the two eps of The Terror of Tal'dorei

Update: Couldn't finish the ep, the series may really be not for me-- and that's okay, still love CR.

Im really glad I read this. Old school D&D player (still have my Red books) and AD&D 2nd edition. Usually I enjoy anything fantasy, and these first 2 episodes are uhmm, dumpster fire fuel. Was going to put Record of Lodoss War on but my remote handy & the dogs already on top of me, so I clicked into this. Hope it gets better, only on episode 2 and its painfully bad.

Percy is my favorite He is just a BADASS Even when he is not used as much in season 2 No matter what scene he is in He is the clever nobleman goofball with a past 😂

While that's true, just because there's a meta reason for it doesn't make it any more satisfying in a traditional story format.

100% more sturdy, even at level 1. My first campaign, my level 1 tiefling, was drunk, tripped and spilled her ale all over a palace guard and he promptly tried to beat the tar out of her. The classic "Session 1 barfight" started and I was genuinely expecting to get ripped to shreds, absolute ruin and then lo and behold I was actually stronger than these guys.

nah, 4/10

The tropeyness is perhaps my least favorite part of this show - but it's why I'm so excited for Campaign 2 to get animated. I don't think there's a single thing in C2 that plays out the way it looks on the surface - and for that reason, I think its animated series wouldn't struggle with being generic in the slightest. 🙂 I'm just excited to see them develop this brand new medium every step of the way.

I did that once on the sorcerer and the cleric. Simply because I wanted to give the sorcerer his time to shine by completly ignoring it thanks to subtle spell and to force the cleric it to ACTUALLY using their god damn freaking meele weapon for the first time in the campaign rather than stand behind the line like some healer bot.

Actually, I think that's the really cool part of this show: the real-life circumstances, character choices, and ability checks that led to organic storytelling moments. To someone who doesn't understand, these moves may feel a bit unwarranted by the greater plot - but with context, they feel like the only way to successfully translate the chaotic experience of seeing things play out in real time by a roll of the dice. They say that sometimes, the dice tell a story - like a certain arc in C2 where a rogue repeatedly fails to pick locks throughout a mission, until she finds her friends locked up at the end of the dungeon and unlocks their cell instantly. That was a case where the dice told a story about that character: she was thrown off her game until the exact moment she got her friends back. Likewise, I think that Pike's return made for a good plot mechanism. The team was going up against -whores- hordes of undead without a cleric, and the odds were shifting against them - until their cleric player finally came back. And I think the sense of triumph that comes from that series of events is more satisfying when you know it wasn't derived for plot reasons; rather, it's the true way things played out. That makes it feel more real to me. And that's what makes this story special. 🙂

I mean they would have had to probably change...A LOT for it to make sense if they hadn't implemented that aspect. Clerics are notoriously powerful against the undead. I am sure that Matt Mercer used what he used against the group especially because she wasnt around at the time. If she had been around back then she would have mopped the floor more time than not with the undead and not have the cleric be exstremely powerful against the undead would have just been...off...

Yeah, and balancing between plot armour and making death meaningless because almost everyone gets revived, especially with them already being stronger than most normal NPCs, is hard to achieve

It was just one of several pre-stream stories, but it was the one that will actually matter for a more important upcoming arc.

To be fair, by the time you hit level 5 or so in D&D 5e even the wizard can tank blows that would turn a commoner into paste.

To be fair, at that point they were ~10th level, while most of the guards would have ~10HP tops. A blow that would wreck a guard in 1-2 rounds would take much longer to kill a higher leveled PC. But that kinda plays back into the issue of needing a little dnd knowledge to understand some elements of the show.

This is a television show.

Can you clarify this for me please? I was confused by the score.

@@whosaidthat84 The channel has a gag where he rates everything a 4/10

@@crystallxix1493 thank you for answering.

That’s literally the WHOLE point of bards

I binged S1 around spring and summer 2020 when C2 went on its pandemic hiatus. It was a perfect storm in that I no longer had to study constantly but couldn't really go anywhere or work. On some days I had the stream VODs in my ears at virtually all times. I think the most CR i got in a day was 3 episodes. 115 episodes of up to 5 hours each sounds like a lot but when you spread it over months it's not that much. Hell if you just keep to an average of one episode a day you'll be done in less than 4 months.

If you want another D&D animated series check out the anime Record of the Lodoss War as it's based on a D&D game except instead of live play it was a transcript of a game printed in a Japanese magazine.

Pike is spelled with an I.

Same. Spells, ability checks, hits/misses, damage, and HP were all super fun to watch play out in real time! You can really get a sense for it most of the time, which makes it feel so real! I think that's why the story feels so gritty: the world doesn't pull its punches. Compared to the commoners, the PCs DO have plot armor - but it's not plot armor that makes them impervious to problems. Instead, it's plot armor that comes from the PC's being skilled enough to overcome overwhelming odds and still make it out by the skin of their teeth somehow. I really felt like the characters weren't totally infallible or protected from failure, and that made it much more exciting to me whenever they did anything. Because they made it feel real! Like, now I understand what a bunch of level ~10 characters looks like: they're a bunch of normal heroes that BARELY manage to not get eviscerated by a fucking dragon for long enough to get a few hits in. As much as I knew that the characters were powerful heroes, it always felt to me like they were in real danger - like they were only one slip-up away from getting themselves killed. And that made the action super compelling to me.

I think you meant a solid 4/10

@@KillerOfWhales damn you’re right, how foolish of me, my hand slipped. 4/10

@@edgytypebeat781 You mean 4/10

Voldemort?!

I know, right? I'm hoping the Belt of Dwarvenkind shows up in campaign 2 so we can have Grog the Bearded when he faces Kevdak.

There was so much in that first part that could have been great. Meeting Kima, seeing Vax be an actual assassin, more with Gilmore (because that was brushed over WAY too fast)

If you ever feel like giving the first campaign another try consider skipping the first chunk of episodes. I can’t speak to the video version since I was podcast only but the sound quality improves massively not long after they get out of the underdark. Also the underdark section just wasn’t all that great, easily the most skippable part.

Campaign one has a really rough start. I tried to watch it three times because I kept hearing how great it was. It was only after starting Campaign 2 and after I'd caught up to the current episode and was loving it and the cast, that I slogged my way past the difficult beginning episodes of campaign 1. And calling it a slog was a kindness on certain parts

@@ArtGuyCharlie Shippable as in thats where the romances happened, or did you mean skippable..

@@zioqqr4262 Typo corrected, thank you.

If you enjoyed it that much and gave it a 4 I wonder what you would call a 6

I am the shield that guards the realms of men.

Yeah, I’m a fan of Critical Role, but I am not a “critter”. Not a fan of the piranha-like mentality those fans have for anyone who has some criticism of the live show or now animated show. Let me help you tank this , Davvy. Overall I liked the animated show, but the level of adult stuff (language, nudity, and even some of the violence) felt gratuitous and unnecessary to me. It felt like a teenager trying to be edgy by saying “fuck” a million times. We get it, it’s an adult show. So treat your audience like adults, not 14 year old boys. After the first two episodes, the stuff I didn’t like got better and I really enjoyed it more.

I’d say nah we aren’t like that…. Then I remembered that I barely interact with the Critter community and they did jump down my throat when I said I kinda didn’t like the first episode. So yeah… fuck those guys.

@@PanCircumsonus agreed. You summed it up really well.

@@damobeck1 I’m not saying “fuck critters” but I do think, generally, their love of CR sometimes gets a little out of hand when it comes to responding to criticism.

Yea, I think if I didnt know DnD, then sometimes Id have to wonder if they rlly just treat everyone who isnt a PC as comedic-relief-gorefodder

bruh its a fucking show?? its a story!! i've read this comment 10 times scrolling through the comments and its the same shit every time. from a literary standpoint, it makes no sense for this to function that similar to dnd.

@@devas185tator7 Okay, lets rephrase it: Usually, stories handle it a lot more graceful, where ecery decision to harm or not to harm a character has intent, and where each character in a fight is there because the writers want them too. In dnd its reverse, where the characters MUST be there, and they cannot simply be killed even if it would make sense that one of these fools would get it at some point. (as in, characters will get into mortal peril all the time and then solve it with something that at the table is really cool,, but on screen is just "yeah ill just solve it lol" Yes, its a story but its a very different story where danger doesnt serve the story and largely happens because thats what the game is. Superherostories avoid this by ppl being openly and intentionally on a different level. Other stories avoid this by not having 8 characters everywhere all the time/if they do, these charaters will die. For example, LotR would be a lot less engaging if the whole fellowship was at the same level of combat skill.

@@devas185tator7 well good thing this isn't an adaption of a literary work it's an adaption of a live game which operates under different rules, the closest comparison is adaption of the stories of real sports teams where sometimes teams lose or players get injured randomly

That only makes sense for anyone who knows D&D. To most, Vex is just an archer and Vax just stabs things so how do they do it so much better than the dozen trained soldiers who just got annihilated as if they had just picked up a spear? I know the reason, but many don't

Truly, a thief of the highest making

oh wow, you are totally right :O

i'm just imagining him wearing the banana suit :D

maybe... if Percy hadn't come first...

@@companyoflosers maybe if I wasn't joking

This is a show.

@Davvy Chappy what show do you know has the main characters lose to the mooks? I don't recall alot of members of Agents of Shield or Team Flash getting wrecked by the bad guy's minions. Cops do though....just like the Army of Emon.

Wdym?

@@SuperDeathclaws Many Kickstarter backers are, to put it mildly, disappointed that the only way to get the free access to the first season is via a free trial with Amazon Prime. Some object to the idea of giving a huge corporation our personal info, some object to doing business with Amazon on moral grounds, and some have already gotten a free trial and cannot get another according to Amazon's TOS.

Welcome to the rabbit hole. It goes deep my friend

it doesnt make sense from a literary perspective, and its meant to be a show. shows have stories.

@@devas185tator7 It kind of does. I mean, I really am reaching to try and support my point, but Vox are far hardier and more durable than the castle guards. They took on an adult blue dragon and came out on top

@@devas185tator7 and stories have main characters? what do you even mean lol. in most stories outsiders die easily while the heroes have plot armor. same with lord of the rings where the genre started from.

Yeah Scanlan only really stops being the comedic relief and becomes an actual character after his (first?) death and when his daughter is introduced.

Yeah I can't believe the comparison to Invincible's animation quality... Vox Machina is objectively a huge leap ahead in that department. Arcane looked way better of course but that show has a budget per episode comparable to the entire season of LoVM.