Guess what just made it all the way over to Germany! Now let’s hope they are actually useable…
Tag: critical role
So last year I wasn’t in the fandom yet, but the episode that happened sooort of on my birthday because of timezones had Vex tell the tree fuckboy that her heart was someone else’s.
This year, the episode happens after it is my birthday in my timezone, and there are legitimate fears of everyone dying. Man, and I have a party to throw tomorrow, I don’t need that kind of drama in my life. But whenever I don’t watch, Scanlan returns, the twins die, or not, or kind of, Percy and Vex are engaged, or are actually not engaged… I’m scared to miss episodes by now is what I’m saying. And if I miss this one, something horrible is going to happen on my birthday, I can feeel it…
…Or there’s just a nice chat with some armors, maybe a god, and a shared crafting sessions. That. Could totally be a thing. And then Vasselheim falls and Vecna gets the horn of Orcus. Which admittedly would be one iconic birthday episode… Though Mercer might not walk out of the theater if that happens, given how live audiences are.
…rambling about this actually made it worse, dammit…
vohalika replied to your post:
it’s gonna be neat when the Crit Rollers change…
I’m curious! Why do you have Percy as an INTJ and not an ISTJ?
Because….life needs things to life T^T9
I’m actually only half kidding! INTJs tend to be proverb-spouters – they have a talent for summing up conversations in most excellent snappy phrases, although of course there’s much more to it than that.
I assume the ISTJ designation comes from the fact that Percy is very Noble and very much loves being a de Rolo, which one would normally associate with the family-and-tradition streak of ISTJs. The thing is that Percy doesn’t love being blue-blooded so much as he weaponizes it when it benefits him, and he doesn’t really feel any sense of obligation towards the responsibilities of his name. He’s happy to abuse his name if it will, say, insult the “new money” or prank someone more effectively (like how he goes Full Haughty and drags Scanlan through the mud when they’re trying to bust Kaylee out of jail). His inclination towards propriety is bred into him, not inherent (and his disinclination to be touched or hugged, unless it’s by Vex, is very common among INTJs). The person I would tag as ISTJ would be Cassandra. The difference between “remaining Lord of Whitestone despite the fact that you’re last in the line of succession, despite literal vampires and dragons, despite being eighteen and having PTSD, despite everything, because it’s your duty, damnit” and “fleeing Whitestone to regroup and come back with a machine you made for the purpose of vengeance, thereby executing a scheme you have been stewing on for five years” is pretty representative of the difference between an ISTJ and an INTJ. Moreover Percy basically only uses Whitestone as a base for his inventions once it’s at peace again. He spent the entire skip year inventing steam power in Whitestone and early warning systems for Eman.
And “inventing” is the key word here; Percy constantly sees the potential in things, looking at what they could be rather than what they are. You could credit the guns to Orthax, in part, but Percy’s made so much more than that – jewelry, traps, modifications to the guns, Diplomacy, and Bad News, just to name a few. (Historically speaking, because they think about untested solutions to problems, lots of inventors and scientists have been INTJs). Percy thinks far ahead into the future, worrying about what his guns will mean a hundred years from now, a thousand years from now. That’s INTJ big-picture far-future perspective. “I live as long as Whitestone lives” is INTJ perspective: he is his works, his creations, and he lives through them. I once knew an INTJ very, very well, and when I asked her if she would choose to be immortal, she said yes – because it would give her the time to learn all the things she wanted to learn, and do all the ideas in her head justice. Their immortality is in their works, even if that is morally reprehensible immortality. Percy’s casual, lofty self-deprecation is also very INTJish, by the way – they perceive their own flaws as facts that they must simply accept, in a way that doesn’t necessarily hurt their feelings, but does stick them with a perfectionist streak and deeply-nested doubt. You hear lots of INTJs worry about whether they are robots or cruel or bad people – a worry that Percy frequently expresses. I have some back-and-forth doubts about my types for everyone else in Vox Machina, but Percy is pretty much the one I’m 100% on. Ni-Te to the max.
(Disclaimer: I dabble in this. Like. You seem way more qualified. I’m just going from what I’ve read and stuff and haven’t been doing this for long.) Compelling points, though I do disagree a bit with the
perspective on Percy’s sense of duty. He skipped a goddamn trip into the
Feywild to stay at home and do his part during the timeskip. Well, and
depending on how you interpret revenge, the whole Orthax deal might have
only happened because of what he felt he had to do. In a way. But
that’s a chicken and egg scenario.
On a related note, the “I live as longe as Whitestone lives” is less about his inventions – there are none of his inventions at Whitestone when that line is spoken – and more about his family name, history, and legacy there, which is, I feel, more important to him than living on through his creations. He very much would have liked for the guns to die with him, after all.
(I’m also pretty sure Percy would turn down immortality. For both obvious reasons and just from a philosophical standpoint.)
Meh, I might be projecting a bit,
because I identify with a LOT about Percy and I’m about as ISTJ as they come. Then again, come to think of it, he is also just so… Inefficient about things at times. And absolutely has a bit of a romantic streak, despite the computing issues. It’s probably the key point of connection between him and Keyleth, who I’d absolutely type as INFP.
Another thing that really struck me as more of an ISTJ thing was his way of handling his anger at Scanlan. The complete refusal to admit that he got his feelings hurt by trying to rationalize it all down to how he’s upset because Scanlan took things with him. A nice, rational, objective reason to be mad, far removed from emotions and stuff. Struck a chord with me, is what I’m saying.
(Also I’m pretty sure Vex would be an ESTJ, and I kind of liked the symmetry there and with Keyleth, but I know that’s like extremely superficial and all.)
HEY CRITICAL ROLE FANDOM
stop saying that the twins’ last name is “Vessar” and ppl are just forgetting.
no one has forgotten – the twins just aren’t using it, and with good reason. it’s the surname of a father who was negligent and cold at best, abusive at worst. it’s no surprise they wouldn’t want to identify with him, or that they don’t feel like they belong in his family enough to be identified by his last name.
stop trying to tack it onto them if they don’t want to use it. it’s not what they want their identities to be. they don’t want to be Syldor Vessar’s children, because he and his people made them (especially Vex) feel like they shouldn’t be.
“okay but taryon’s dad is an asshole too and he’s still using the last name” YEAH COZ THAT’S HIS CHOICE, which itself has a goal (he wanted to bring his own honor to the Darrington name, and now he’s trying to clean up the Darrington name), just as it is the twins’ choice to not use their father’s last name. respect that choice.
don’t reblog ppl’s gifsets saying “but their last name is Vessar, are ppl just really that forgetful lol” because a) no, b) NO, and c) you just look like an arrogant asshole when you do that, even if you do it with the best of intentions.
There’s a reason the cast called them “Mr. and Mrs. ‘ahlia”.
Since apparently this needs to be said: There is a difference between “I am, personally, disappointed by this narrative choice and here are my reasons and analysis as to why” and “omg you all suck for not playing the way I want you to your fun is wrong.”
There’s a difference between not liking what is going on and yelling at the cast about it on platform they actually see until they make twitter posts about it and turn it into meta jokes on the show.
There’s a difference between critically analysing a narrative and hating it.
In fact, for many people and not just me, analysing a narrative, trying to think through what went into developing it, and discussing inconsistencies is one of their main ways to get enjoyment out of it. You can be critical about some aspects of a thing and still really, really like it. You can be critically of a narrative choice and still respect the hell out of the person who made it. It can be done! Amazing, I know.
If you see someone do that and don’t like it, the best way to deal with that is filter their content! It’ll make your and most likely their day better. The block button exists for a reason.
You know what’s a real dick move, though? Telling people to shut up about their thinky-thoughts. Especially when those thinky-thoughts are not about how Marisha or any other player are the worst human being in the planet and destroy everything they breathe in the vicinity of. That is bullshit, that is mean, and that is ultimately futile, and disrespectful of the content these people create for free to us to enjoy.
Analyzing the content and thinking about why it is made the way it is made, though? Is not. Media analysis and criticism is a form of validation, actually. If someone tried analyzing the themes of my D&D game, I’d be thrilled, because that means it is taken seriously as a legitimate piece of art.
And from what we’ve seen so far, Matt himself would be the last person to tell us to just shut up, sit back, and stop debating as long as we’re not insulting anyone. And really, in general, trying to police what content other people produce in a tumblr tag is as ridiculous as it is also futile, not to mention mean.
So live and let live, god dammit. And if someone else’s thoughts bother you so much, the block button is your friend.
So someone just told me to shut up and behave like the people who yelled at Matt over twitter about something so much, he had to address it twice. So yeah, that’s totally what I’m going to do, but only after making two last points:
- On one hand, we have Matt telling us Scanlan spent his life travelling around, picking up knowledge and passing that on to others. On the other hand, we have Sam completely bamboozeled every time Scanlan is supposed to know anything about anything and telling us Scanlan spent his life touring with a band, performing music, trashing his patrons’ bedsheets, seducing people and making little Kaylies. We also have Scanlan lamenting the fact that he felt more like the storyteller instead of like part of the story. In comes Ioun telling him that he absolutely is the storyteller and that he should be the best storyteller he can be. How is that a satisfying conclusion to anything? I get that her words about how much he means to everyone were reaffirming and needed and honestly what the others should have been telling him ever since he got back, and how maybe that coming from a goddess of knowledge is especially reaffirming somehow.´- right while she kiiiind of invalidates the arc Scanlan at least tried to have outside of having a daughter.
- The whole champion issue aside, the fact still stands that the de Rolos died because they had an Ioun temple in their basement. At the place where Ioun was wounded. It would have been nice to at least get that addressed or acknowledged in some way. Instead, we get Ioun drawing a direct parallel between Percy and the guy who got his entire family killed. Oh, after she gave a moving speech about redemption, of course. I mean, if nothing else, rude. And Percy seeming unfazed by this doesn’t make it any less rude – it’s just what he expects to hear at this point anyway.
“The true death is being forgotten.”
Man, this Talks episode doesn’t just make me angrily vindicated, but also FEEL so much more about Percy’s elation at the books about people and with his family and stuff…
…Also, Keyleth fears forgetting everyone’s names, huh? Good thing SOMEONE had all of that set into stone like 50 episodes ago.
(Yes I am still salty. Even when proven right about things.)
(So do I write fanfiction or rant about how the whole thing where people draw parallels between Percy and the guy who had his family killed and hometown subjugated because they had an ioun temple in the basement and how gross it kind of is)
About Gods, Hipocrisy and Infallibility
So almost a
week later, I am very much still not over just how stupid the thing™ was last
episode. I mean, here’s a goddess who
- Locked
herself away in hiding - Locked
the access information to her hiding place away in a guy hidden away in the
forest with no idea on how to access the information inside him - Was
sought out because she was the one hiding the information on how to ascend to
godhood (which was then stolen from her and exploited to wreak doom upon all
the world) - And
because she was also hiding the information on how to contain a god once
ascended - Which
she had literally locked up in an insanely hard to unlock secret place - And
then distributed more knowledge on how to save the world, but with a time limit
on its accessibility
…and she
rejects Percy because he likes to keep secrets? And therefore gives her
championship to a storyteller, who a) has voiced concern about being the
storyteller instead of part of the story and b) was only ever interested in
telling stories about his exaggerated greatness instead of passing on actual
facts? Maybe in part to make up for feeling like his part in the story as the
storyteller wasn’t big enough?
I’m not
even saying that the blessing isn’t fitting for Scanlan or that the challenge
wasn’t tailor-made for him. It was. Tailor-made by the DM, that is. I’ve previously
voiced the suspicion that this was based on Matt’s view on what a bard is
supposed to be, rather than what Scanlan is actually like.
(also what I’m saying is that her reason to not choose Percy is just ridiculous and doesn’t add up. Percy’s policy regarding keeping secrets is literally identical to what Ioun does)
And after
rejecting Grog’s attempts to connect with Kord straight-out, that is pretty
likely. Matt has planned out this final arc and everyone’s god connections (or
lack thereof) some time ago, probably from the beginning given his affinity for
the long game. That’s why this arc feels a lot more on the rails than any
previous one. He has a specific endgame in mind, and maybe it’ll involve more
gods, maybe the Allhammer will be the last dude and we’ll all be here next week
yelling about whether Percy or Grog are better fit, maybe Keyleth’s entire role
is supposed to be just everyone’s convenient taxi so no one will yell about
Marisha getting the DM’s GF bonus or whatever.
However,
there might actually be a greater point to Ioun and the hypocrisy here.
Ioun also
presented the first counterpoint to the whole shebang the Raven Queen
introduced regarding fate-touched, destiny and inevitability. There is always a
choice. Which is to say, she hinted at the Raven Queen being downright wrong.
That the gods are not infallible.
Like, I have
previously argued that Pelor is an asshole and just the latest in the
long-standing line of asshole male (father-) figures Vex attaches herself to even
though they are not even remotely worthy of her, and that claiming he had a bunch
of better champions despite none of them lifting a finger when dragons raided
the world was either wrong or a dick move, and this just goes a step further. The
gods make mistakes. They say shit that is plain-out wrong. They can be giant
hypocrites. We don’t have to take ANYTHING they say at face-value.
So like
Percy pointed out at one point, there might be hope for Vax’s soul yet. That
also means Vecna is even less powerful than he thinks he is – what use are his
godhood when it doesn’t even help him verify his secrets (and I’ll have words
for the gross, gross, gross attempt at a parallel there)?
So maybe
the very unconventional theme of this god arc is that the gods ain’t shit. Actually,
that’s the take-away no matter what at this point, because either the gods ain’t
shit and that’s what Matt is going for, or I’m right about the rail-roady thing
and Matt is the god who is actually even less infallible than previously
thought. But as I said before, that… Just sounds so lame. So…

Vox Machina: Oh yeah, that gem in the skull could totes be a necromancer’s phylactery!
Also Vox Machina, less than 5 minutes later: But hOW can DELILAH BRIARWOOD be AlIVe?!!?!?!?!?
So really, what’s the end game here? Half the characters get super cool blessings, Percy and Grog get to work on a project together, and Keyleth is everyone’s lyft?
That’s, ah. Anticlimatic in many ways.