They obviously couldn't put it in the show, but in the original stream, when Vex first used the necklace on Trinket, she said "I now pronounce you... my Pokemon."

@JaelinBezel

8 ай бұрын

Obvious how?

@Elanchana

8 ай бұрын

@@JaelinBezel Copyright

@JaelinBezel

8 ай бұрын

@@Elanchana like anyone would care

@VladdViever

8 ай бұрын

​@codyhines7040 Nintendo shuts down fan non profit projects for less.

@TomElliottJackson

4 ай бұрын

Nintendo lawyers are scary, scary...

The "take me instead you raven bitch" line is a direct pull from the game. I and many others were waiting for it and I'm not disappointed

@zenmastermtl

Жыл бұрын

I imagine that the Raven Queen hears a lot of curses and insults. Just part of the job.

@shadowfiresword

Жыл бұрын

@@zenmastermtl I'd imagine it's like working in retail at the returns counter, lots of pleading, lots of anger, very little patient acceptance.

@chipsalom

Жыл бұрын

Man the way things just kept rolling and picking up steam in so many ways, for so many players and their characters stories .. love how that is getting translated in the series, too! Like, the whole sense of stakes increasing every single episode is really felt!

@ALJ9000

Жыл бұрын

@@shadowfiresword Which is why I’m prepared if my time comes. No sense in leaving this world stressed, am I right?

@the_tactician9858

4 ай бұрын

A not so fun fact: When this episode came up in the game Liam O'Brien, the person who played Vax, had been through a rough time, mainly due to the death of his mother, which left him emotionally devastated (it might have even been to the point of suicidal thoughts, but I don't quite remember if that was the case). I believe he later revealed that when Vex died in-game, he channeled much of the same emotions into his gameplay as he had felt when his mother had died, almost as if talking about her rather than Vex. It is likely his 'take me instead you raven bitch' comment was born out of a similar desire to swap with his dead mother, in order to not have to feel this pain.

Fun Fact: Liam O'Brian and Laura Baily (voices of Vax and Vex) share a birthday, and decided to play twins because of it. Their interactions on set still show that twin behavior, even when they aren't playing siblings, which made this scene even more heart-wrenching

@NoSoulJoel177

Жыл бұрын

Damn this just makes me love em' more

@chipsalom

Жыл бұрын

@@NoSoulJoel177 oh ya, agree lol! In fact, when they did a bunch of Critical role "everything is content" episodes with just the two of them playing ESO together, their characters they named "Lex and Lax". Its a fun thing to watch.

@NoSoulJoel177

Жыл бұрын

@@chipsalom Lex and Lax hahaha 🤣 love em'

@derkrischa3720

Жыл бұрын

The best Twin-liink moment from Laura and Liam, in my opinion, was in campaigne 2 during the Cupcake Incident, you could see in liams face that he knew Laura had a plan!

When you say "take me instead" and the answer is "fuckin' bet."

To be clear: Kash was, mechanically/magically, the one who resurrected Vex. Without him doing what he did when he did, she would have stayed dead. Matt has some home brew rules for resurrection to make it harder which were translated really well here, so it also was Vax’s “take me instead, you raven bitch” line/offer that allowed the resurrection to succeed. So W’s all around is what I’m saying.

@ShadowyFox_86

Жыл бұрын

I actually disagree with you about Kash. The spell failed in this instance. All the runes he carved went dark when the Matron broke the golden light/shell around Vex. It was only after Vax made his deal that Vex came back. That's an important difference as far as the story of LoVM is concerned, since that ties Vex's fate to Vax's sacrifice. Without Vax's sacrifice, she would've stayed dead. Even Kash admits that the Matron wasn't allowing the ritual to work.

@xaetaminvaela9830

Жыл бұрын

@@ShadowyFox_86 He was referring to the original campaign, not the show.

If one is to become the champion of the Goddess of death and fate, one must learn to accept fate and embrace death

I love the look and design of Vax's vestige. Being the champion of the Raven Queen comes with the drip

@chipsalom

Жыл бұрын

It comes with it's weight though, too 😄. So many story developments that grew and compounded wove together so well by Matt. I remember how many times what seemed like stuff from idle in game chatting or throwaway lines, Matt remembered and used for later incredible twists. You're left just thinking wow! How did Matt A. Manage to even remember what seemed like such a small meaningless detail or bit of character flavor description and B. Manage to work in in such a cool, seamless, creative way?!

The Matron of Ravens is the goddess of fate and death. The yellow threads in this episode (and in the intro) represent the threads of fate and his personal connection to Vex. In response to his offer, she claimed this connection for herself. You can think about the ramifications of that.

Liam is dedicated for dungeons and dragons as well as his voice acting, which is why he climbs the rope like a boss for both versions :)

That last vision just showed how he's now aware of and connected to death. There was a corpse in that ruined building and he got a vision about how that person died, including the Matron of Ravens coming to collect the soul. Then he tried to back away, but she pulled him back, by a string of fate. That's what those golden threads are (they also show up in the intro btw). Because his fate is now tied to her.

the moment when the vestige lights up is a nod to the system Matt Mercer designed with the vestiges, you don't just get an OP piece of kit, you have to earn it, and when Vax passed the test it went from ''dormant'' to ''awakened''. the final step is 'exalted'', where it's just godlike power, and Vax casually rolling a D20 and ending up with a 36 on a stealth check (with his gear and stats he got a +20 boost or something insane)

@aidenauty9716

Жыл бұрын

i believe someone else (keyleth and/or vex'ahlia) can cast pass without trace, that gives everyone a flat +10 to stealth checks, Vax has more than 10 levels in rogue now, so he has the "reliable Talent" ability, which means when you make a skill check with any skill you are proficient in, your treat any roll of the dice below 10 and a 10 (roll a natural 1, it becomes a 10 on the dice) with expertise in stealth that puts him at roughly +23 to stealth (5DEX+4Prof+4Expertise+10 pass without trace) with a minimum total role of 33. these seem like crazy numbers but its actually really easy and kinda the rogues thing

Resurrection Spells in D&D change from edition to edition. Almost all of them require a substantial amount of either Diamond Dust or Whole Diamond

@knuckles543

Жыл бұрын

which included an increasing DC check for every time you died, so even if you rolled well, it might still not work

@ChevaliersEmeraude

Жыл бұрын

Fun fact; in my game, because it's a bit leniant I make it so enemies do come back! Basically the bad guys are an order of mages (one from each school of magic + an Archmage as their leader), so they have a Necromancer, and said Necromancer knows the "Clone" spell! :P The game is a bit early for them to even deal with that right now, but that's the plan! So eventually they'll have to take care of the Necro AND take out their lab, too! That should be a fun quest! Also, fun fact, our Rogue took the Phantom subclass, which has the ability to trap souls in lockets! There is a limit to the number of lockets they can have, but for sure that's an ability that's gonna be useful in this context! ^_^

@flaminyawn

Жыл бұрын

@@ChevaliersEmeraude Nice! I do love a recurring enemy, and it sounds like you've worked out how to play it out in a meaningful way.

@EternalSentinal

Жыл бұрын

Also it makes it more emotional because characters have to bring something to the table as part of the ritual in the form of a skill check. I believe Vax got to make a persuasion check at Advantage for offering himself. But I think the funniest one was Grog making an intimidation check to help bring someone back (Leaving it there in case they decide to add that in later episodes in some form)

@jjhoops023

Жыл бұрын

That being said, they do succeed in resurrecting player characters far more than they have a right to lol

The creepy thing we keep seeing THIS season is the Raven Queen, the only time we've seen the Whispered One is for that brief moment in season 1

23:48 haha! the players actually called it a pokeball in the campaign stream

i love that you guys are getting to see Liam O`brien's acting. He's so unbelievably underrated and us critters have had him all to ourselves for about 8 years now, so happy for him that the rest of the world are getting to see and know him.

The deal with the trap is that it only kills you if you drop below 0. Trinket if memory servers had still some HP left after the hit, and in the show they decided to spare that part since it's probably better to focus the grief towards Vex fully

They pulled a lot of lines from the game for the show. Percy had some good ones they showed in the last season. "You're the face I saw when murder entered my heart." Was a good one.

In addition to the note I had last time I'll clear up what happened. When Vex offered himself to the Raven Matriarch he became her chosen warrior, he started to take Paladin Levels on top of Rogue levels

The thing that showed up in the past few episodes was NOT the Whispered one. It was the Raven Queen/Matron of Ravens.

Yeah, between episode 3 and episode 4, Liam O'Brian (voice actor for Vax) deserves an Emmy nod. He's acting the shit out of this, and you FEEL it. It's incredible.

Vax is played by Liam O'Brien. He's in a lot of stuff, but I personally know him best as Grimoire Weiss from the first Neir game.

@cmrobbins88

Жыл бұрын

And Gaara of the Desert from Naruto. I believe he also played Infinite in Sonic Frontiers.

I'm just gonna put this out there. I highly recommend you watch Exandria Unlimited: Calamity. It basically delves into what happened a 1000 years ago with the gods and why the world of the show is the way it is. 4 part mini campaign with stellar voice actors all around. Travis (Grog), Marisha (Keyleth), Sam (Scanlan) among fantastic guest players slip into new characters that experience what happened the day shit hit the fan for pretty much the entire world. React to it or watch it on your own, up to you! You will not regret it!

@spiritualviolation

Жыл бұрын

yes to this! and i think it doesn't require watching campaign 2 or 3 to really understand, it just adds a good context to the world of exandria as a whole but even as a standalone series it's worth every second of watch. it is a total of 20 hours, but i hope these two would give it a chance!

@nightingale8178

Жыл бұрын

@@spiritualviolation I agree. The only callbacks (I think) are Purvan Suul, who is already introduced, and Aeor (but that name alone wont tell you anything, if you dont know who or what it is). So as a standalone, its pretty awesome to reccomend for ppl to get into d&d or Critical Role in general. EDIT SPOILER ALERT: There is also Vespin, but he will probably be mentioned later in tlovm. So this is the only one

@SaltySweetRen

Жыл бұрын

There's a lot of speculation that Calamity might be the movie they signed a deal for. I really hope so, cuz I can't wait to get so emotionally wrecked again!

@caaneq1

Жыл бұрын

I am lowkey hoping that with there new Amazon deal 'movie rights' as it was stated ends up being Calamity. 🙏🙏🙏🙏

@aratathekingx1401

Жыл бұрын

Exu calamity is to this day my favorite dnd online experience. The comedy the emotions. And Brennan once again being the Goat. All put into a neat 4 ep bundle.

Fun fact: Vax’s VA, Liam O’Brian, also voiced Gaara from Naruto. Whom of which dressed up as him during one of their Crit Role Halloween session.

Fun fact: most of the best lines from this show (including season 1) come straight from their live game, where they were said in the moment. That goes for all of the characters.

Anyone notice Kiki's face after Vax won? Get that girl some water.

That woman you saw at the end approaching the town of Westrun was Ripley. If you look closer you can see the hand she holds the orb (which I believe is a scrying device) with is a mechanical one, to replace the one she lost.

Looks like they combined one of Vex's other items from the game, the Boots of Speed, into what his Vestige does in the show. Gotta say, I like that much more since it makes the armour much more impressive than it was base.

I will never get over the fact that Kash is Eric from Boy Meets World

funny how you mention how too good of a voice actor liam o'brien is. liam in general is too good at playing a brand of sad bois, and considering critical role has confirmed an animated series for their second campaign... let's just say it certainly won't be the last you'll see of liam's true power even when tlovm gets finished :)

@mrksimka1159

Жыл бұрын

I want everyone except Sam and Marisha to leave this room "I'm gonna tell you story of how..." This scene is heartbreaking. I want it animated.

@spiritualviolation

Жыл бұрын

@@mrksimka1159 YES! imagine the visuals that would happen while caleb narrates his story

Just to clarify: the matron of ravens (the raven queen) is not exactly evil. She is the goddess of death and is extremely strict in her domain So she took vax instead of vex as a kind of equivalent exchange She means no ill will to those she takes but feels no kindness either a soul is a soul regardless to the divine of death

@cdnxman1326

Жыл бұрын

She was also once human. The former God of death, was apparently a dick, so, she killed and usurped him. This means that many of the other gods, actually kind of fear her.

@TheSwagMessiah69420

Жыл бұрын

@@cdnxman1326 now I'm imagining all the gods having a meeting and the raven queen sitting in the back wearing sunglasses and smoking a stogie and her meer presence preventing at least 17 different holy wars

yeah, the ''hentai creature'' was supposed to be a beholder, a mainstay creature of DnD, one of it's abilities is to use one of it's many eyes to shoot a beam that petrifies the target

@Norbert_Sattler

Жыл бұрын

In case someone doesn't know what a beholder is, it's essentially a big floating ball with a big central eye and from that things that look like a snail's feelers, topped with an eye radiate outwards. Each of those smaller eyes can cast a different spell. Some of them are petrification, disintegration and sleep... I think also confusion, but I'm not sure and a couple more. But Wizards of the Coast have become rather... unforgiving in their copyright of that particular creature in recent years (among other asinine moves...), so it's no surprise the production team had to replace it with... whatever this tentacle thing is.

@captin3149

Жыл бұрын

@@Norbert_Sattler Beholders come with a staggering variety of variants. Even if this isn't the classic Beholder, it could still be one of the beholderkin....even so you're correct so they likely would call it something completely different now....especially with the stuff happening with WotC right now.

@JBasilix

Жыл бұрын

@@Norbert_Sattler It´s kinda sad how a lot of tabletop companys who have very much been community friendly have become way more... corporate for a lack of better words. The tabletop scene has been on the rise for a few years now with it being not "just for nerds" anymore. The possible profits sadly won´t be ignored by investors and/or company owners. Funny then that it is exactly that community that made them so popular to begin with

I just want to let you know that they are doing another show for their second campaign which is my favorite and I’m excited and hope you tow watch it I’m really enjoying your two reacting to this one

@dragonslayergu1161

Жыл бұрын

Found that out the other day and saying I’m already excited after only having started campaign 2 a few weeks ago would be the understatement of the fucking CENTURY

@ChevaliersEmeraude

Жыл бұрын

I mean, I'm sure they gonna react to it, but that show is probably gonna be out in a year at best anyway! But yes, like you, I'm really looking forward to that one! :)

@jakubbarczyk4310

Жыл бұрын

@@ChevaliersEmeraude Probably more, they did not start production yet

@ChevaliersEmeraude

Жыл бұрын

@@jakubbarczyk4310 Yeah that's why I said "at best". But, y'know, I'm optimistic! There are reasons it took a while between when the Kickstarter ended and when The Legend of Vox Machina first aired; They had to find a team to do all the animation, the editing. They had to find a streaming service that was willing to put their show on. Probably some lawyer, copyright stuff behind the scene. Not to mention that's when the brunt of COVID first hit so things went into hiatus for a while! Those are all things that are kinda dealt with. They have a team that can work on it already; maybe they'd need to hire some extra people, that could be useful, but the people they already have can already start. They don't have to seek out a streaming service; Amazon is already there for them. As for COVID, I don't want to be all "it's not a thing anymore", but it doesn't slow down our lives the way it did when we had no vaccine and all. My point is, a lot of the obstacles that was there for the first season of Vox Machina aren't there anymore, so getting Mighty Nein in a year is totally a possibility! :)

@coreymoore5780

Жыл бұрын

Most likely late 2024 early 2025 seeing hoe they green light a season 3 for vox and are shooting for 5 in total they would prolly wrap up season 3b first then the group would probably stsrt heavenly working on season 4 of vox and 1 of mighty nine after their third campaign ends sometime this year or next that’s my prediction

Little bit of Lore for understanding the Gods and Vestiges: So there are 2 Distinct groups of Gods in Exandria, the Prime Deities and the Betrayer Gods. As you can imagine, the Betrayer Gods are usually the ‘Evil’ ones, while the Prime Deities are typically Good or Neutral. A long time ago, the two sides waged war for… reasons, with a lot of casualties on either side. Many of the Vestiges were made by the Gods for their respective Champions, such as the Deathwalker’s Ward for the Raven Queen/Matron of Ravens Champion. There are also others for other Gods, though some Vestiges are merely incredibly powerful weapons or items from that time. The Whispered One and the Raven Queen are entirely separate entities however. The Shadowy Figure Vax has been seeing this season is the Raven Queen, since we have the benefit of Foresight and being able to foreshadow things that will come later that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to do in a DnD game.

Some folks have probably already said so in the comments, but a little bit about The Matron of Ravens, also know as The Raven Queen: In the world of Exandria (where the series takes place), the Raven Queen was once a human mage who undertook a powerful ritual that allowed her to challenge, defeat, and assume the role of the previous god of death, which was felt across reality and caused all temples, writings, and memories of the previous deity replaced with those of the Raven Queen. She is not a goddess of the dead, but rather the moment of death, the transition between life and death, the natural cycle by which all things come to pass. The reason Vax saw her in Emon when the Chroma Conclave attacked was because there were so many dead, and she had come to guide their souls to the afterlife of their patron deity, whomever that might be for the deceased. In addition, because of her ties to death and life, she is also the goddess of fate, able to see the threads of fate that bind all beings in the world to one another and to the path their lives take until the inevitable end. As neither death nor fate are actively malicious or benevolent, The Raven Queen herself is not a wholly good or evil goddess, yet she is instead a neutral being. She is a force of nature itself, keeper of the cycle of life and death, and tender to the threads of fate, ensuring the balance of the world. Those who disrupt the cycle of death such as necromancers like Delilah Briarwood, or who try to forestall or deny their ultimate fate like liches and vampires, are subject to her wrath.

Liam is a fantastic actor, and you've probably hear him in other shows and not realized it. Biggest one I can think of is playing Gaara in Naruto, Illidan in World of Warcraft ("You are not prepared!"), and Dr Strange in a lot of marvel games. But since they announced they are making The Mighty Nein (Campaign 2), you are gonna love him as Caleb Widogast.

For context, the Calamity was the last major war between the Prime Deities and the Betrayer Gods. Not only did they influence the world, but since the gods could walk on it back then, SHIT. WENT. DOWN in that war. And the world still hasn't recovered from it.

I think it's Will Friedle who says "are dead" there. they cut it out of the clip, but Laura had asked to check for traps and Matt had asked her to roll to search when Taliesin as Percy grabbed the armor setting off the trap. Trinket did get hit, but still had hit points to spare. In this episode, Percy actually takes accountability for it, far more than he did originally. I hope you can find someone doing a comparison of the scene where Vax punches him - it was so well deserved.

@paige8453

11 ай бұрын

What did he actually do that he needed to apologize for? I'm still confused about that because in the show she doesn't say anything until Percy had already touched the armor. So what was he supposed to do? go back in time and untouch it or something?

These guys are great, they should go into acting 😁 Sam Riegel (Scanlan) was the one who quipped "are dead" as a joke. Liam O'Brian (Vax) was going through a real tough time dealing with the loss of his mother when this happened. He channeled that pain into the game beautifully.

Fun note! The calamity pulls from the binding of Rovagug in the original pathfinder setting, where all the gods, good and evil, fought against the god of chaos and destruction (Who seeks to consume all) and his cultists. Sarrenra AKA the Everlight and Asmodeus AKA pathfinder devil (With emphasis on the contractor imagery) worked together to jam the monster inside a vault created by abadar (Lawbringer) which Asmodeus bound and sealed while the everlight held the monster in and the door closed. As you might guess, this event impacts a lot of lore from pathfinder and pathfinder adjacent properties.

fun fact that raven B*tch line he really said that in the dnd campaign no joke and also grog lines telling her she dead he really sad that word for word in the dnd XD

A tiny bit of context I don't think they're going to get to in this show, but before the Raven Queen was the Goddess of Death, she was a mortal. She's the only person who has ever successfully completed a ritual that made her a god, but in doing so her mortal name and appearance became completely lost so nobody could try to recreate what she did. (This...mostly worked, although we know of one other person who attempted the same ritual. It didn't work, and that's what actually started the Calamity. More or less.) The fact that they specifically went out of their way to *not* show her face is the reason I think the woman in the scene in the barn was the Raven Queen as a mortal.

Just some things that u could use for Info? 1. The Matron of Ravens is not evil, She is the goddess of death, she collects souls of mortals when they die and helps them to the other side where they go. (Usualy souls of mortals go to the realm of the god they worshiped in life or other powerfull entities that may have had a deal with the owner of the soul. On ocasion if the mortals were evil their souls are sent to the Nine Hells.) Thats why u saw her in the 1st episode, she was collecting the souls of those who died during the dragon attack, and in episode 2 when Vax saw her on the roof of that building in Vassleheim, that building was Her temple. 2. The flashbacks of the Calamity. The Calamity is an event, the second war of the gods. In Exandria there was a pantheon of gods, at some point about half of them decided that mortals need to be killed of. That half are called The Betrayer gods. The other half defended mortals and are called The Prime Deities. The Dieties imprisoned the Betrayers in other planes. And the Calamity started when some mortal wizards wanted more power so they made a deal with the Betrayer gods and released them. The war was again between Betrayer gods and the Dieties and their mortal followers. The Vestiges were created by both sides to help their mortal champions to defeat the other side. There are Vestiges that are from both camps, good and evil. 3. Vax. Vax made a deal with the Matron to take him. Thats why she cut the golden cord linking Vax to Vex. And in the last flashback of the Matron u saw the golden cord linking Vax to the Matron. Thats why Vex was allowed to return to the land of the living. A deal was made.

Ooh this jump scare got me good. Zombie Vax. Yeah she Quan Chi'ed his ass. He's now her own little Scorpion or noob saibot.

@vgmaster9

11 ай бұрын

I love me a good horror element in a non-horror show/film, it's just not something you'd expect.

Ant: They could be fucking as far as we know.... Me: Weeeeeelllll..... . . . . . . . (Spoilers) Kashaw is actually married to a lesser diety named Vesh (Thus his full name is Kashaw Vesh) He hides himself from Vesh so that none of his friends suffer her wrath. Thus his slight hesitation when he said "We could....Try resurrecting her." He does have kids with Zahra at the end of the campaign.

Three Gods in the Calamity Image- left to right- The Dawn Father, Matron of Ravens, Unknown but possibly The Chained Oblivion.

Kash still DID revive Vex. the matron of ravens just chose to let it happen and not to intervene with the ritual after her deal with Vax

@Aliciaxlife

Жыл бұрын

OHHHHH for real? Hot damn

@ShadowyFox_86

Жыл бұрын

I thought the same way until I watched it again and focused solely on Kash's ritual. His runes go dark when the Matron starts to take Vex. He even says she isn't letting it work. So when she comes back, all signs of his ritual have stopped. It's Vax and his deal that causes the Matron to not take her.

@Vinsch2510

Жыл бұрын

@@ShadowyFox_86 I think in the game (if i remember correctly) Vax's bargain with the Matron was part of the revival rite. the show could have changed that to make it more dramatic. still, his (very difficult) ritual could / should have worked, if the matron didn´t intervene. so I thought it was a bit harsh to hear that he didn´t do anything 😅

The trap that Percy triggered when he opened the sarcophagus was I believe a spell called Touch of Death or something very similar. Basically, on the table top game itself, if you get hit by it you’re immediately dead and can only be brought back via resurrection. The reason why it didn’t work in the show is because the Matron of Ravens is the goddess of death and so resurrection rituals don’t work in her temple.

I love how in the campaign, matt, the dm had planned to give the deathwalkers ward to percy and not vax

Can you bring people back? Yes, though it depends on a number of factors. How long have they been dead and how powerful is your Cleric, among others. Vex got brought back immediately, less than a minute, so it was ironically the easiest form to go through. Ordinarily the spell Kash casted to bring her back just automatically works. He was there, cast the spell in time, thus the requirements were met and Vex lives again. Since this trivializes death, Matt has some homebrew rules to make it harder. He turned the spell into a ritual that needs three people to assist with, adding their own power or saying words of encouragement, things like that. The idea is the soul has left the body and moved on, you're trying to persuade the soul to return to the living. Oh, and the more times a person dies and is brought back, the higher the required check has to be, making it harder and harder to do until eventually death *will* stick. In Vex's case it was Kash who casted the spell with Percy, Zahra, and Vax aiding. Percy failed his check while Zahra succeeded, making Vax the deciding vote essentially. His screaming out "Take me instead, you raven bitch!" was his contribution. The Whispered One isn't here, that was the shadowy figure Delilah saw when Percy shot her last season. This one is the Matron of Ravens (i.e. the Raven Queen), the goddess of death whose temple they are in and whose champion they are attempting to get the armor of. The Raven Queen essentially is the Grim Reaper, she's the caretaker of souls at the moment of their deaths and helps them cross over into whatever afterlife awaits them. She's about as neutral as one can be, caring nothing for the struggles of the living world. All she cares about is guiding the souls of the departed on. Again, Kashaw cast the spell that saved Vex, Vax was the reason the spell succeeded. So it turns out the Raven Queen accepted Vax's offer. He is her new champion, he belongs to her now. Vax's war vision is of the Calamity, a *massive* war in which the gods essentially fought a civil war with mortals siding along with them. Basically the pantheon of about a couple dozen gods came to Exandria (the planet) and out of the chaos of the primordial world they created life and civilizations, creating the assorted mortal beings to inhabit it. The primordial titans who were already here got pissed and fought back and were defeated, but some of the gods realized they had fucked up and had fought side by side with the titans against their fellow gods. These gods are called the Betrayer Gods, as opposed to the ones still loyal to their mortal followers being called the Prime Deities. The Betrayers were sealed away for their involvement and the Prime Deities ruled along side their mortal followers, with mortals becoming super magical and powerful in the process. The Calamity is what happened when mortals got too powerful and the Betrayer Gods broke free of their prisons to try and wipe Exandria of all life. It was a massive, devastating war that killed most of the mortals around (Vasselheim survived both the war against the titans *and* the Calamity and was the only city left standing each time) and injured some of the gods themselves. The Betrayers were sealed away once more and to avoid this happening again, the Prime Deities put up a barrier that prevents them from physically entering the world again, only able to have their presence felt via their devout followers acting with their blessings. This is why the gods can't actually appear since they're all trapped on the other side of the Divine Gate, but Clerics such as Kashaw and Pike and champions such as Vax can interact with their gods of choice. So this tentacle monster is a redesigned monster that due to D&D copyright they can't use the original design for in this series. In the game it is a Beholder, a floating eyeball with teeth and a bunch of other mini eyes on stalks, each eye capable of blasting out a ray of magic with different effects. It's sort of D&D's most iconic creature. Because they can't use it here, they redesigned it to have magical tentacles instead. Also this battle took place before the trap that killed Vex. She was wounded in this fight and that was what had her hit points low enough to instantly kill her there. Westruun is Pike's home town and the people who are occupying it are Grog's former herd. On to the actual game footage. They do find it funny when they get a bad roll, you just got to laugh at failing sometimes. They just didn't recognize how severe the failure would be here. Yeah, these guys are master class actors and improve artists. And a huge amount of lines in the animated series are taken verbatim from what they say in the game, anything they can use that fits. It's been like that since episode 3 of last season when we started covering footage from the streamed game.

If I had a nickel for every time I cried when Liam O’Brian was flying through the air in an epic battle, I’d have two nickels: once here, and once for Gaara vs Rock Lee.

He did say Take me. And so the raven queen decided to haunt his dreams claiming him for her nightly booty calls. Or something.

The vestige here is combined with another magic item Vax had from the stream that let him move at double speed and gave him an extra attack on his turn. Tying it to a set of gear made for fighting the gods is a good change.

About the Calamity, that Vax had the "privilige" to see in his vision, there is a short 4 Episode Special on Critical Role explaining what it is and how it came to part. Game Master of that was Brennan Lee Mulligan, who was amazing and left all us critters with a feeling of hollowness after this apocalyptic war of the gods. You should watch it!

There is fan-animated version of this scene on KZread, it's years old but I'd say that's done even better than in the show. I'll try to find it and drop it here. You definitely need to watch it.

Liam and Laura (Vax and Vex) share a birthday irl and through almost a decade of playing together they've become as good as siblings. They _are_ siblings at this point. And that makes this scene hurt so much more for me. Also Liam fucking O'Brien is a master at making critters (or anyone, really) cry.

If you go back a couple of seconds after Vax killed the creature, you’ll see key’leth in the back with those “fuck me” eyes, it’s hilarious

Vax basically went into his own version of the Avatar State

you missed after vax kills the monster, grog says "well damn" and keyleth is quietly biting her finger.

Gonna miss vax’s poofy fur lining of his old coat

"you dont need to flex that hard right now" liam/vax: hold my ale

Zahra and Vex are actually super good friends in the campaign since the realized they're so much alike. Not surprising you have a similar reaction to her as you did to Vex last season. XD

It was Sam that said it "are dead", I believe. There was a running joke in campaign 1 that Sam and Scanlan hated trinket lol Vex's death was such a turning point of the series and made the danger of the quest imminent. I'm sure people told you about the Suntree moment and how that solidified in our minds that the Briarwoods meant business; Vex's death changed everything in the og show

Death is basically a lifestyle choice for high level D&D characters.

You seemed so pleasantly surprised at how well the table translated to screen, right down to pulling from exact lines and movements. I gotta tell you there's sooooo much of that in here. Starting in s1 ep3 there's a wealth of it. I squee just as hard each time. Oh, and if you're not gonna be prepared for a certain grungy pyro.

The dude in the bed war Pervon, it was showing him his fate as the matron’s Champion, I think

Ok, you saw whispered one ones in first season the hooded person. All the time this season was Raven Queen.

Super quick condensed story of the Calamity: Back in the day, like over 1,000 years ago, the gods live on the planet aside humans. Humanity develops super advanced magics and some begin to think they're as good as the gods. At the same time, 12 of the evil gods launch a plan to kill the 12 "prime" deities. The vestiges are made for the good gods champions. The evil gods make similar weapons for the champions. And the gods go to war with each other. The fighting lasts 100 years or so, and is destroying the planet and decimating human civilization. In the end the good gods decide to sacrifice themselves to protect the planet from all the gods and they do a ritual barring all 24 of the gods and preventing them from manifesting directly. Since then they all have to work through their priests and followers. There's a LOT more detail to the story, but that's the rough idea of what they're talking about when you her Calamity.

I love the reaction to the CR scene so much, it adds so much charm to it, please keep doing that.

Lol, when Alicia had that thought about Vex stabbing the baby bear my brain just went "going to need some shoes to go with that rad ass cloak."

"Oh no he's too good a voice actor" The true Liam O Brien experience.

Rogues do rogue shit man. Especially when they have a vestige of the Goddess of Death.

Neat easter egg! You know that glowing cord that we keep seeing whenever Vax has Matron of Ravens visions? Rewatch the musical title intro and you may notice something interesting.

It's not that Kash's spell didn't work, he is strong enough to pull it off, it's that Gods dont normaly enter temples to other Gods, and they were in the Goddess of Death Temple, and she isn't Kash's Goddess

@damian01061973

Жыл бұрын

She is much nicer than Kashs goddess. :)

There are a few ways to resurrect a dead character, and they rise in difficulty, materials required, and power required, depending on how long the recipient has been dead, and how damaged the body is. 11:38 - *“Whose war is this?”* _Everybody's._ The so-called "Calamity" was the second war of the gods on this world; it lasted about 200 years and nearly wiped all mortal life of the face of the planet. In this flashback, we can see Pelor, The Dawnfather (the one with the glowy head). Next is Ioun, The Knowing Mistress (looking kinda tentacle-y in silhouette, but that's just her hair), the deity that Osysa the sphinx serves, and whose sunken temple the Briarwoods corrupted in season 1. The third is probably Torog, The Crawling King, one of the evil deities whose release sparked this apocalypse. You already recognised Sarenrae, The Everlight, over Vax's Shoulder. She's not originally from D&D, but is an import from the game _Pathfinder,_ which is the system that these guys were playing at home, before they started streaming under the name _Critical Role._ 14:14 - *“Ew, what **_is_** that, though?”* That is a completely original and _legally distinct_ monster, called an "Onlooker", which is _totally not_ a Beholder from D&D, because those are very, very copyrighted. A beholder being the monster that the party actually fought in this temple during the campaign, though the sequence of events has been shuffled a little. 19:36 - _"Whatever happens… it's out of our control."_ - *“Just accept it!”* If you remember back to the flashback where Vex first said that line, the _other_ significant line she said there was "Sometimes you have to embrace what's in front of you." 22:54 - *“Oh Percy!”* Sam and Travis, who were taking point on supervising the production for the gang, specifically asked the animators to slow down that shot, so that the audience could really savour Percy's goofy expression. 30:54 - _"Does that bring you below zero?"_ The reason why Laura wasn't overly concerned until Matt asked that question is because _normally_ in D&D when you lose all your hit points, you fall unconscious (as she said a few seconds earlier) and start a fight for your life. Outside of combat, and surrounded by friends who could aid and heal her, unconsciousness would be annoying, but not a dire situation. But then Matt asked that question, and she was brought up short, because there would be no reason to ask that… _unless_ the spell that hit her had additional rules, beyond simply dealing damage - and the most likely would be the conditions under which the spell causes _instant death,_ bypassing the normal unconsciousness and "death save" rolls. And characters dying is a bit more of a big deal in _Critical Role_ than in regular D&D, because Matt instituted some house rules regarding resurrection, that make the process more involved for the other players, and carries a risk of losing the character permanently. They're doing it this way, to prevent death from ever becoming a mere nuisance, at higher levels. The way it works is that the ritual starts with a basic 50/50 success chance, but each time the character has _already_ been resurrected before lowers the chance of success by 5%. If you tried and failed a quick-shot _Revivify_ (e.g. during combat), that's another 5% reduction. Up to three characters can try to contribute to the ritual, either through materials or actions; if they succeed, each can improve the chances by 15% - but each botched attempt adds another 5% to the chance of failure. Thus the best possible case (the character has never been resurrected before, no failed _Revivify,_ and three characters helped successfully) would have a 95% chance and only fail on rolling a 1, but in the worst case (the character has already been resurrected 7 times, _Revivify_ failed, three botched attempts at contributing), it's not even worth rolling: you'd need to roll a 21 on a 20-sided die. That being said, if a character dies and the player is _not ready_ to completely end their story yet, then Matt _will_ find a way to let them continue it in one form or another. It may be at a considerable cost and/or involve a concerted effort by the other characters, but he'll let you continue your story. Taliesin decided one way, during campaign 2, and Marisha decided the other way in campaign 3.

The raven queen isn't evil she is neutral it's her job to oversee the dead and their passage to the final resting place, the last lady that you didn't recognize is Ripley the one handed lady from season one that escaped.

Pocket bear!

The Matron of Ravens, or the Raven Queen as she's known in D&D, is the goddess of death... one off them. She and the Whispered One/Vecna are not related other than they're connections to the dead. Vax is now her new champion, he took a couple levels in paladin

That was seriously a evil dead level jump scare, bravo

I'm confused. We were told the vestiges were created to destroy the gods. And then we heard that the calamity war was between the gods and the mortals. So why is now one of those vestiges for the champion of one of the gods? oO Did some of the gods fight on the side of the mortals? Did the Raven goddess take possession of the armour after the war ended? Or is this Raven thing something other than a god or a new god who rose after the original ones were destroyed? When I saw that scene when Pike got grabbed I too only throught "Grab on? Why, so you can turn to stone together?". ^^ This Raven woman is the patron of death or something right? So Vax letting himself be killed symbolically is like surrendering to death. A fitting way to become the champion of the mistress of death. I think those people are just the people who lived in that ruined house... however long ago. Maybe the armour enables him to perceive death in his surroundings, including deathes that happened there in the past.

@LilyKazami

Жыл бұрын

The lore of the Raven Queen does say she ascended from being a mortal to becoming the god of death. But this was far before the Calamity, which was a war of two different groups of gods, with mortals on both sides.

@tjwhite9071

Жыл бұрын

Yeah basically, Betrayers made vestiges to kill Prime Deities and Prime Deities made vestiges to kill the Betrayers

@marcuslee1953

Жыл бұрын

Sorry dont really understand the question, but to sum it up: Calamity is when a bunch of shit gods wanted to wipe the slate clean. The Prime Deities fought for the side of mortal kind. There was a huge war where the gods themselves were fighting along with each god's followers. To overpower the other faction, each god created these weapons (the vestiges) to tip the balance

@Norbert_Sattler

Жыл бұрын

Thank you.

@captin3149

Жыл бұрын

The Matron is a special case, but the gods basically had champions that they sent to fight on their behalf. It wasn't between the gods and mortals, the gods were on both sides fighting each other.

The voice actor of Vax is also...ahem "gaara, illidan stormrage, yasuo (LoL), and even gollum in the middle earth games) hes an amazing voice actor but his role as illidan will forver be my favorite

The voice actor for Vax also voiced Gollum in Shadow of War. The man has range.

My favorite part about the critical role campaign is whenever someone does enough damage to kill whatever there fighting matt goes " how do you want to do this " asking how they would like there killing blow to be. And whenever he says that every just explodes 😂

The pair In that ruined house was the briarwoods. It’s to symbolise that the raven matron wants them dead (spoilers for possible future return)

14:00 Ah yes, the legally distinct Beholder.

There's a BIIIIIGG fucking difference between the Matron of Ravens and the Whispered One. The Matron is a mostly neutral deity who governs the cycle of death, winter and fate, while the Whispered One is an evil god of the undead and magical secrets. If you've seen the latest season of Stranger Things, you're actually already vaguely familiar with him. Also, I love the depiction on the Death Walker's Ward in this series, even if it functions way differently than it does in game.

Vex is played by good old Liam O'Brien, aka Garra from Naruto

@SaltySweetRen

Жыл бұрын

Nah, Vex is played by Laura Bailey (*cue harp strings*) *Vax* is the one played by Liam O'Brien.

Another fun fact: Liam O'Brian (The voice of Vax) also voices Yasuo in League of Legends

I finished ep. 4 and started ep. 5 when I saw this. Now I have the show paused to watch your reaction to this with the memory fresh in mind.

@zemorph42

Жыл бұрын

The whispered one never had feathers associated with him or his appearances. It was always the Matron of Ravens.

*Liam:* _[spontaneously shouts]_ Take me instead, you Raven bitch! *Matt:* My, my, my! What an… _interesting_ plot hook you just handed me for free, that I can slowly spin out over the next, oh, say, 300 sessions spanning three campaigns. His mind can be scary, sometimes.

Sorry but can we please the fuck talk about the SOUND DESIGN ON THAT MONSTER. That was absolutely goddamn fantastic. What the fuck in any world makes that noise and WHY ISN'T IT ME

Yeah I'm getting a subtle dom-vibe from the Raven Queen...No objections. 🐕‍🦺💀

Oh yeah, watching the whole live action campaign scene from that point until the Vex’s revival is like wow. One of many moments where you go “these guys are so freaking talented“

I'd love to see you react to more scene comparisons and clips from the original campaign!

After what she did the the mother bear the b--h should have stayed dead 🌋 (but then again I don’t know the condition it was in because I can’t see the screen very well, but still. That was some Yellow Lantern s-t. 😤😡) First she’s willing to kill her brother who knew needed her and now this

All of this because Liam wanted his friends to play D&D for his birthday. Now they have approved campaign 2 for its own show. What a great time to be a nerd.

Liam O’Brian it’s the goat, also I think the vision of the man dying in bed it’s probably the matron of ravens trying to teach him to accept death

I would love for you to do more comparisons at the end of your reactions!

The Calamity is the war bettween the Prime deities and the Betrayer gods, The wispered one aka Vecna is one of the betrayer gods and the raven queen aka the Matron of ravens is a Prime deity, after losing the war the betrayer gods were banished from the prime material plane, thats why the wishpered one was trying to come back

@flaminyawn

Жыл бұрын

Small correction in that the Whispered One here isn't a god, but an obscenely powerful undead spellcaster. Not sure if he was even around during the time of the Calamity.

@cdnxman1326

Жыл бұрын

@@flaminyawn yeah, he saw what the raven queen did, and tried to do the same

Fairly sure all magic users Know whether a spell succeeded or failed. so yeah. he knows. :)

Any chance of getting a run-through on the 5th or 6th ep in tandem with CR's recent announcement trailer? It's only 30 seconds or so but gives a neat view of what to expect when they finish up Season 3 and bring up Campaign 2's cast.