watching laura go and grab a large stuffed bear and having to drag it all the way back onto the set with no ones help is actually how every action with trinket in game goes
@@nightflame69 I'm fairly certain it's a real bear that's been stuffed, and brown bears are usually about 5-7ft standing, though they've gotten up to 9ft tall.
Srsly, as a GM i would just houserule that the Ranger can get 1 big pet (bear sized) and 1 small pet (up to cat sized or sth) but can only coordinate one of them in battle. So that The ranger can swap around pets when one of them is more usefull (or just less of a liability to the party). As much as I like trinket (and everyone else in matts group does to) there really are many cases of the pet being more of an esqort quest NPC than helpful.
@@MakDemonik I'd just give the Ranger the ability to attack themselves and with their creature. Full action attacks, it literally doesn't make sense that a bear would be completely passive with arrows being fired at a target.
@@auroravaughan575 This, honestly. The bear should count as it's own unit for combat purposes. Essentially making the player control 1.5 characters. That way the Ranger gets a buff it desperately needs, and isn't completely OP because the beasts don't have out of control stats.
@@CreamyPesto505 There is a variant Unearthed Arcana ranger where this exact thing is addressed my dudes: media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/UA_RevisedRanger.pdf Besides, D&D encourages homebrewing, so do whatever your DM allows!
I just realized (completely unrelated to anything happening in this episode), that the funniest part of Percy's name is "the third," meaning that 2 previous family members had that exact same ridiculous name before Percy did.
And somewhat paradoxical considering de Rolo is supposed to be his father's and Klossowski his mother's name - so how could an ancestor have carried that particular name prior to their marriage? ;)
Matt Mercer is the master of "Yes, and..." roleplaying. He rewards the characters constantly for being who they are. Vex was nonstop suspicious about the band stealing from them, and so he paid it off by actually having her be right. Scanlan's character arc is about him turning from his old ways, and Matt pays that off by giving him a chance to prove it. Even on little ways, like by letting Keyleth use her Druid Craft for all kinds of silly nonsense. It makes the players feel like their choices matter and have serious impact in the world at large, which keeps them engaging in the game over and over again. Beautiful work, all of you.
I would be non-stop suspicious of the band too. I think it's less about rewarding Vex, and more about her avoiding the punishment of being naive with a bunch of scoundrels in your home. If she wasn't suspicious, they would just find out they lost a bunch of money.
YES. Im going through CR for the first time, and have many months to go to get through just Campaign 1, but I immediately observed that Trinket is utterly useless, takes up valuable time and often puts the party in jeopardy. But thats ok! Its their silly game that we are merely observers of, and they all have fun with Trinket and adore him, so even if hes largely useless it doesnt matter one bit.
Matt managed to masterfully pull out at least some sincerity out of Scanlan, and Sam reacted pretty well. The only way I can describe it is that Matt pulled the rug out from under Sam, and he did a backflip and landed it.
That whole sequence was heartbreaking and Matt was trying so hard to have a serious heartfelt moment, but the fucking peanut gallery was cackling like banshees through half of it. So much respect to Travis for understanding what was going on and trying to hush the rest
@@Kasino80 Sam Riegel was just SO INTO IT, just like that. What a legend. When he was wiping his eyes at the break my heart was breaking. This was one of the best scenes in the entirety of critical role, with one of Scanlan's most iconic quotes.
@@privpi In that episode Matt explicitly said that as "she slit the duergars throat with the morningstar's jagged spikes". It is seems since then she upgraded her weapon to something else (the mace of disruption is what she wielded during the fight at the Ziggurat).
The Bhatman true.. but isn’t the taint mightier than the pencil? I mean, a pencil is sharp.. it can definitely be used to stab multiple people. But to kill someone with your taint.. man... you REALLY want that dude dead to kill them with 2 1/2-3 inches of swamp-ass inundated skin. When asked “how do you want to do this?” And you answer “WITH MY TAINT!” You REALLY mean business.
I mean honestly most parents interchange the names of their children by accident often lol and I feel like as the DM to players..to close friends you're guiding along...its very similar 😅
This might be slightly off topic, but I always mess them up, too, since I am not native English and their pronunciation is too similar for me to differentiate. The full names are fine though. And also the similarity is probably the point. Love it
no but you CAN arcana the sad out. technically heroes feast both cures and immunizes you from poison. alcohol is a form of poisoning so they should have been immune to being drunk after that.
I'll always ship VaxMore the most. I just loved the two of them together -- they seemed so much more compatible than Vax and Keyleth to me (although I did eventually care about the ship in the very end).
"I am... in love. With someone I don't think.. loves.. me..." broke me. Too close to home and too recently real when I already relate to Vax the most out of the group. Fuckin hell.
The exchange between Vax and Gilmore is what makes DnD, GREAT DnD. There was absolutely no need for that conversation to happen in order to progress the story, but it's what Vax would have done in that situation and Liam and Matt played it very well. All while the rest of the group let them be. They smiled a bit but they didn't call them out or anything, they just went with it. Things like that are why Critical Role is so popular IMO.
So i know this is a year late, but: Im quite deep into RPing my characters, but all the people I happen to play with are horrible at it and keep shoving everything out of the world of imagination into a world of hard calculus and numbers... As expected im getting a bit angry at that... What do i do? Leave until i find the right people? Scold them and try to improve their RP? Im certainly not accepting how it is and even if that sounds selfish, im not interested in being a single RPer in a meta-hell
@@MisterLimeLemon play a different system. D&D can be RP heavy but it is a game inherently dictated by numbers. Check out Genesys, and Edge of the Empire specifically.
@@MisterLimeLemon short of punishing their actions because they say something like "I did the thing" you need to tell people what you want and why you want it. If they are not on board it's at your discretion to call it quits or to keep going.
sam riegel owns in this episode im in complete awe that his little speech in the bedroom was off the cuff yet beautifully delivered and slick as hell. AND it was so perfectly scanlan, equal parts charming and sleazy and lucky and yet also heartfelt. self preservation mixed with ego mixed with a genuine glimmer of desire to begin changing for the better this man was born to play a bard. my goodness
Watch the between the sheets with his wife. It seems his character is pretty comparable to his own early life before settling down with her. Agreed, great speech and development
oh my GOD I know it's been 4 years but holy shit! Scanlan grew up with a single mother, conning, working and stealing to survive. Now, he's only repeated the cycle, leaving his daughter with a single, poor parent... he's looking at himself from his younger years and he wants to make it better, the thing that never happened to him. Damn this show and damn all this character development.
Yes, that parallel killed me just because it's so realistic. Toxic familial cycles like that are unfortunately so common. Unbeknownst to him, Scanlan ended up falling into his own father's steps, being absent from his kid's life. And the roleplaying in that scene was magnificent as well. Damn this show indeed!
I love how quickly this can go from them all laughing hysterically at Marisha and Taliesin in a strange position. To a very serious moment between Vax and Gilmore while nobody says a word.
@@DGGB-- As a kind of joke when they were in the underdark after Pike gave Scanlan inspiration by kissing him, Vax tried to gain inspiration by kissing Percy. Mercer said no, but maybe next time if this was the start to something.
She's not the moral center. Being a cleric of Sarenrae (a neutral good deity) means pike would fall close to that alignment. Means she leans more to a good moral compass. The moral compass is Keyleth as she's undoubtedly true neutral (like nearly every druid.) She's the one who has to pull the group to the center to come up with the best plan for everyone (though she is terrible at it). In reality Vax becomes the moral center as he is a Paladin of the Raven Queen who does not lean to evil or good she's neutral and recognizes that Death is the only sure thing in the world. And seeing as she's basically the one who decides where you go when you die
I think it's more because he showed his advertising skills while advertising for Gilmore's and all his inspiration songs/limericks. He just has a knack for it. Lol.
he wasn't late per se, he was rushing from other gigs. he did a lot of directing work at the time and those are long days, especially getting across town through LA traffic.
Additionally as the newer shows are pre-recorded the broadcast time does not necessarily reflect the filming, if Sam is 5 minutes late to set due to other commitments, then filming starts 5 minutes later but broadcast time is still the same and as viewers we know no different.
BriSirnicky I never understood the Marisha hate. Orion could tweak out in a meth induced rage, metagame harder than anyone, and tell a married woman she gives him a hardon in front of her husband... and the fanbase is like "Dude he was having a bad day." Marisha complains when her group goes full murder hobo because her character is neutral good... "OMG! Marisha is the worst." Or my favorite, Marisha's dump stat is charisma... so she acts socially awkward, "Marisha is so cringey."
It has nothing to do with woman hating, she is cringeworthy more than anyone in the group. I get the alignment aspect, but she is the worst sometimes. I will say she has some great ideas in tense moments sometimes. But this doesn’t outweigh the landslide of cringe that is Marisha sometimes.
Jesus Sam is good...that whole speech after discovering his daughter. That's about as good writing as I could do if I had 24hrs and a prompt on what the scene's about. He just did it off the cuff, every word just perfect
Absolutely blew my mind. Especially in contrast to the awkward reaction Keyleth had to Vax’s proclamation of love (which I felt in my gut bc I would have reacted the same…I’m so bad at being put on the spot).
The Yelp joke had me in tears. From Liam's laugh that could cure cancer, to the "Oh" from Vex's character before she breaks down, to Pike's background laugh, and Keylith crumbling immediately. Matt even knew a joke was coming. You could see it in his eyes that he knew it, and even did a head wiggle and glare as he was yelping as if to say "Bring it." Only to immediately lose the battle in disgust. My favorite bit is this idea of a tiny gnome standing in the center of a group of hardened adventures all collapsed on the ground in disgust going "No? No?" Easily my favorite moment of the series so far lol
@@ambskater97 Gaawachan was probably referring to the fact that, well, during that time Liam's mother was fighting a losing battle with cancer. Just, yeah.
Yeah, don't tease us, what happened? You got annoyed with that personality and broke up with her? She got crotchety and mean with age? She got sick and died? Petrified by a beholder?
Yes! And I'm so thankful that it happened and for the way Matt translated that into Kaylie's actions. It made for such a convincing, tense but heart-felt moment... Damn this show
Matthews timing is so perfect. When the bar sequence started to get a bit boring.... Bammm! Gilmore, the parties favourite NPC shows up. He really lives and breathes his world. And he always reads the vibe of the party so well to keep the game at the pace and pitch it should be at. Amazing
And the whole dynamic between Gilmore and Vax is brilliantly played out by them both. You know you've made it as a DM when your players treat your shopkeeper NPCs like human beings instead of game menus. Liam was brilliant as a player for having Vax feel genuinely guilty for leading Gilmore on for shop discounts and favors while his heart belonged to another. But it was equally brilliant for Matt to have Gilmore meet the party _outside_ the place the party normally meets him, like a living, breathing citizen of the city would. A lesson for all DM's who wish to encourage more RP from their players: Bring your NPC's to situations outside their job descriptions!
More like. After an entire episode inside a bar and previous episode being a festival. He was really not prepared for another "party time" episode. So he improvised to make it somewhat interesting.
@@sarawarlestedt7242 Or maybe he gave them a hero’s feast to encourage going out into danger. Would be a shame to waste effects of such powerful spell on downtime.
Love the idea of springing a pub crawl on a DM who's probably planned out one tavern per town and maybe two or three for a large city. "You find yourself in the Green Dragon, there's a grizzled halfling behind the bar and a shadowy cloaked figure sits in the--" "We down our pints and leave, where next?" "Er... you make your way to the... Blue... Unicorn. There's a half-orc behind the bar and a cleric is drowning his sorrows at--" "Done, next!" "The Beige Bugbear. There's a Cloaker behind the bar and a grisly half-halfling is arm-wrestling an orc cleric in the corner."
@@laBEEm There is a service called "Yelp" that lets you look for and rate resturaunts and stores. Yelp also means "a sharp sound made with the voice usually in response to something." So when Sam started yelling he was "yelping" as the sound to find a tavern.
I love it just because Grog is just...too stupid to really corrupt. Convince to do evil things, maybe, but like...he's gonna listen to Pike over anybody else even a sword so...
I can totally see this as a "Gru explaining evil plan" meme format like: "Be sentient evil sword" "Find a worthy champion and corrupt them to do evil" "He's too dumb to corrupt" "He loves killing so it doesn't matter anyway"
That scene between Vax and Gilmore was so lovely. Exactly what I wanted for them when I realised what was happening. Doesn't turn their flirting into a joke, doesn't pretend it didn't mean anything - just a wonderful, mature end to that part of their relationship, and also an excellent way to have the Vax/Keyleth storyline continue while he is still respecting her enough to give her space.
@@JulieMullen Fudging is the act of rolling dice without anyone else seeing and telling a different result than the actual roll, fudging is something DMs do to help the game have a better flow and when it's done by players it's most of the times cheating.
+Zoyarox Craszen I've already explained to another but I'll give you the short version. Yelp is a website where you can search for businesses and a yelp is a short sharp cry of pain or alarm.
+ChaosWolf1982 I just hope the sword doesnt try to control him more, otherwise eventually he will lose it, and I feel like they deserved something cool from that whole vamp arc. The sword and Grog are so perfect together so would hate for that to be ruined.
Yeah, I thought Scanlan was just being a jokester with pike and being good to impress her but it is true that he has been more heroic and selfless, braver and moral since the campaign started... the realisation that what he said was Honest hit me Hard
A part of me is sad that Scanlan didn't end up choosing Sybil over Pike, to own up to his mistakes. That aside though, that bit of RolePlay between Matt and Sam is my favorite part of this series so far.
Sam and Matt taking this moment and making it such a huge and meaningful character arc... few shows have a comic relief who's also probably the most interesting character.
Zed - "You're more than welcome to stay here with us." Vex - "Yeah she is 'cause it's our house" Zed - "................Right......" xD lol I love Vex sometimes
Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing what would have happened if Keyleth had stayed with the band. The drummer awkwardly flirting with her, her not knowing how to react, getting stories from Doc about Scanlan, maybe a mini battle or challenge as a result on their teasing or bad manners. Like a "Kiki's Day Out" episode.
I have to give Travis credit for, thus far, giving me the biggest laugh when they were lining up Daxio for holy intimidation and he looks up, worry in his eyes, muttering a plea to his god of secrets, and Travis, either as Grog or not, just says, "You're looking the wrong way." It was so perfectly smart and stupid at the same time, and that caused me to spit a mouthful of coffee on my laptop, then almost fall off my chair as I ran off to get some paper towels...
im just imagining Pike shoving the holy symbol into his mouth yelling "YOU *WILL* BE HOLY, YOU DICK" With like vox machina and sarenrae chanting in the backround "BLESS! BLESS! BLESS! BLESS!"
If I were to comment on the ethics of that execution, I don't even know where to begin xD I could only imagine Yuriel and the palace guards cringing in the background throughout the entire part!
13:00 - the fact that Travis has a pillow on his chair is making me realize how incredibly uncomfortable those chairs look, if you have to sit on them for four hours at a stretch.
my favourite thing about is like... its immediate? he doesnt send a letter to break it off but the moment vax sees him in person after confessing love to keyleth, he breaks it off. he doesnt prolong it. doesnt try to get both. hes a man of honour
@@randomonlineuser6401 boring, seemingly depressed, overly cautious, slow speaking with an iffy German accent. Generally bland. Droning/monotonous. A drag.
In the last 15 episodes I've fallen so hard for each of these characters. Pike is a total mom-friend though, and she's a beacon of levity every episode that Ashley can make it to. As heavy as the Briarwood arc got, especially in the beginning (Tiberius' granny-grinding glaive and Percy maiming Desmond) every time Pike showed up, things got so much lighter, as if each player and even the DM all were so delighted to have Pike back that the grimdark got a little less grim and a little less dark.
There's this book I read called Eragon. In it, a woman was taught the magic word for 'heal' and pitted against 6 warriors. She healed all the warriors of their fears, their anger and their reasons to fight. They stood there grinning and smiling. She walked up to each of the warriors and slit their throats. That's how you kill with a healing spell.
@@aronwith1a638 Man over here saying "this book I read" like everyone shouldn't know the Inheritance series. Jk hahaha, I freaking love those books! Was that really in Eragon or was it in one of the later books?
The group I'm running now, in order to sell an attack to, in turn, sell an unconscious woman being taken to a port, beat her senseless, the cleric brought her back to consciousness, they beat her again, threw her out of a window (making her go unconscious again), then brought her back after they got to the port. It's possible, trust me.
Grog and his sword is probably the greatest comedy duo in the history of man. I don't want... grog to be evil... but i'm with Ashley i kind of want to see where this goes a bit further. grade A comedy.
I love how Matt loves to mess with everyone with like, “I’m gonna describe this thing like something bad is about to happen... and it’s totally normal!” You can just see in his eyes how much he loves to screw with them 🤣
06:10 - Game starts, part 1 begins 07:50 - No one remembers what the troop name was 11:40 - WHERE IS MY BEAR?!?! 19:50 - Vox Machina gets side-tracked a lot during interrogations 21:20 - Vax Intimidation 30:07 - Grog enjoyed that a little too much 31:02 - The Odd Couple 34:40 - Scanlan "yelps it" 37:02 - Matt checks his yellow pages 40:03 - Drunk Keyleth 42:32 - GILMORE!! 43:59 - Grog Cleaning Off Tables 46:04 - Keyleth is a lightweight 51:55 - Scanlan vs. Grog at darts 57:48 - GIF Material 58:35 - Vax & Gilmore 1:06:08 - Keyleth is a drunk college kid 1:17:14 - Scanlan wants to bone Kaylee 1:19:05 - Scanlan Invites Kaylee to His Room 1:21:20 - The revelation 1:30:36 - Part 1 ends, break begins 1:43:58 - Break ends, Part 2 begins 2:07:46 - Scanlan inspires Pike with a limerick 2:32:48 - Priorities, Vox Machina 2:37:48 - Scanlan licks the wall 2:53:55 - Everyone is suspect now 3:00:20 - Part 2 ends, game ends 3:01:26 - The group sings the theme song from Ducktails 3:02:22 - Fan art [does anyone know the name of the music being played during this segment, please? I absolutely love it!] 3:10:09 - Critmas
I know I'm a little late to the party, but can I just say that Sam/Scanlan's moment this episode was actually breathtaking? I have never seen something so incredible in a D&D game, that was so real. Kudos guys, really awesome job!
@@SocialistSadako I like to think of us, 2021 kids, as the rearguard, La Résistance. So glad and relieved to read I'm not alone in being THIS late to the party ^^
I've only just picked CritRole up so this is my first watch and I've heard of the Matt Mercer effect but didn't understand how powerful it is. The moment he RP'd Gilmore discussing Vecna with Vex and had seemlessly changed the soundtrack from raucous tavern, to plinky mystery music, and back in line with the intimacy of the moment was astounding. I didn't even consciously notice it until the sound of patrons came back in. That was some immersive shit yo.
I never thought I would cry for Scanlan, but man, that scene was GOOD. Matt and Sam both played that perfectly, and that natural 1 on the attack was just, wow... The fates willed it, guys! As a new critter, sloooooooooowly working my way through the episodes ('cause I'm a mom, and it's been a LONG time since I could dedicate hours of binging a day), I can't wait to see what this means for Scanlan as a character!!!
@@caosisaac I reached the end, yes :) I'm 20 eps in on Mighty Nine. I enjoyed Scanlan's character arc immensely! I think the entire group played it really well, reacted authentically as their characters would and had a great deal of respect for the artistic process. I particularly enjoyed Liam's response to the criticism the group got for 'ignoring Scanlan's derailing' - "If a guy with 35 charisma tells you he's fine, then you believe it". Not meta-gaming in such an instance is insanely hard, as my players can attest to, as you obviously want to comfort your friend even if your own PC doesn't realize something is wrong. It was a wonderful story to experience :D
@@michellepehrsondupont3756 It is. Sam is great at making "simple" characters that will turn out to have a lot of depth. Now you get to look forward to Nott the Brave's development :)
Matt had to show the unused map just to score that "I had it and it went unused" point most DMs feel in their core! It's been 38 episodes, and it's all been great, but this one episode, especially that part really got to me for some reason. Man I'm a sucker for reunions. Cryptic comment but don't wanna spoil anything for anyone else! Happy watching :D
The truest curse of the forever DM. The accordion folders of unused maps and stat blocks is an ever growing problem. After 15+ years in the hobby i could probably cobble together a full year long campaign just with the mountain of unused assets I’ve kept.
I thank you for the spoiler free comment! So many times I’m tripping through and laughing at the comments to hit a spoiler with no warning and am like… darn…
'I'm Yelping it.' Chaos ensues, Matt designs a new game mechanic, and either they released a baby alligator into the room or that's just Liam laughing REALLY hard
Having a cloak collection seems so much more reasonable then what my characters tend to do.. as a DM I rarely play and I always play evil, habit being the bad guy I guess LOL. My favorite collections have been the bones of everyone the party killed (ended up with a bone tower guarded by an army of bone golems), dead bunnies, and the peeled off faces of my fellow party members (never be the one to pass out first when drinking LOL).
So good - I think Laura realized it first (she was whispering to Liam right beforehand), but Travis's jaw dropping and when he hides in his shirt is my favorite.
1:56:50 This whole interaction with post-drunk Keyleth trying to talk shit about the group is made so much better with Travis's gentle jabs as she comes up with something
Scanlan's ARC and Percy's ARC 10/10 right now Scanlan is hella good at improvisation that whole situation with Scanlan and his daughter was so good it seemed scripted
1:26:12 This entire sequence, besides initially being comedy gold, is also storytelling gold. Knowing Scanlan's past... that himself was raised by a single mother, his father absent. He's fallen into the same destructive pattern as his father before him. We can only hope he and Kaylie will be able to break the cycle.
+AnkokuEvangeline Favorite moments (there were SO MANY!) : 11:42 Vex getting Trinket 34:30 The group treating Percy like a genius for suggesting a pub crawl + their reaction to "the worst joke Sam's ever done" Keyleth parties hard: 40:23 , 52:20 , 55:20 , 57:45 (+ the perfect use of the word "druidcraft"), 1:06:07 , 1:08:59 , 1:15:50 This whole segment: 1:02:47 - 1:05:00 51:55 Beautiful Sam & Travis improv 1:20:33 A bomb is slowly being dropped on Scanlan, but then miracles happen 1:46:56 Vex is paranoid/right 1:56:43 Grog's teasing 1:59:20 The Trinket debate: Vex vs. Sam followed by Laura's and Liam's improv Grog teasing Vex: 2:05:33 , 2:09:45 2:06:13 Vax's cloak rack 2:07:46 Scanlan's limerick 2:30:07 Percy a little evil magnet 2:36:42 Grog's playing detective 2:54:41 and 2:56:53 Vex's reaction to a pile of gold 3:01:25 Instant Duck Tales
***** I love how thorough Marisha is in playing Keyleth's awkwardness. A part of it must be her naturally (for example, basically every time the group sings something, she's the one that keeps singing when everybody has stopped, so she akwardly looks around and trails off), a part of it is the dice (almost everytime she tries to do or say something cool), but most of it is her consistent performance.
***** Wait, when did she diss him? You mean by the Sun Tree during Winter's Crest? Once she realized they were having a serious talk, she chose her words very carefully.
I just wanted to say, I'm a fanfiction writer and I've started rereading some of my own stories, looking for spelling errors and how to revise and edit them so they sound better. And, while I'm reading, instead of hearing my own voice in my head, I've started hearing Matt's, including his various voices. This either means he's an excellent storyteller, or I've been watching far too many Critical Role episodes lately. Not complaining. Just wanted to say that.
Whatever the source, it's not nerdy or weird to hear familiar voices in one's head when thinking about how a character speaks. As for it being a little crazy, I sometimes talk like characters I'm writing in the middle of the process just to gauge their inflections, which, to an outside observer makes me look loony... I call it method writing.
watching laura go and grab a large stuffed bear and having to drag it all the way back onto the set with no ones help is actually how every action with trinket in game goes
She does love her bear
I just wonder how big this bear is! I have a pretty big stuffed animal and it is no where near that big
@@nightflame69 I'm fairly certain it's a real bear that's been stuffed, and brown bears are usually about 5-7ft standing, though they've gotten up to 9ft tall.
@@rachelclaw This is a 8 foot teddy bear!🤯🐻
99999999999⁹99⁹999⁹⁹9⁹9999⁹⁹⁹
When Laura's getting the bear - "This is a wonderful micro analogy for pretty much every session."
You're an astute man, Mercer.
Srsly, as a GM i would just houserule that the Ranger can get 1 big pet (bear sized) and 1 small pet (up to cat sized or sth) but can only coordinate one of them in battle. So that The ranger can swap around pets when one of them is more usefull (or just less of a liability to the party). As much as I like trinket (and everyone else in matts group does to) there really are many cases of the pet being more of an esqort quest NPC than helpful.
@@MakDemonik I'd just give the Ranger the ability to attack themselves and with their creature. Full action attacks, it literally doesn't make sense that a bear would be completely passive with arrows being fired at a target.
@@auroravaughan575 This, honestly. The bear should count as it's own unit for combat purposes. Essentially making the player control 1.5 characters. That way the Ranger gets a buff it desperately needs, and isn't completely OP because the beasts don't have out of control stats.
@@CreamyPesto505 There is a variant Unearthed Arcana ranger where this exact thing is addressed my dudes: media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/UA_RevisedRanger.pdf
Besides, D&D encourages homebrewing, so do whatever your DM allows!
I laughed soooo much 😂😂😂😂
I just realized (completely unrelated to anything happening in this episode), that the funniest part of Percy's name is "the third," meaning that 2 previous family members had that exact same ridiculous name before Percy did.
Holy shit you’re right, that’s ridiculous
And he’s not even the oldest…
And somewhat paradoxical considering de Rolo is supposed to be his father's and Klossowski his mother's name - so how could an ancestor have carried that particular name prior to their marriage? ;)
@@Isewein well, they are royalty 🤣
Lol I always assumed he was the third in a sense of " third son of the marriage" . Idk why because I should've thought what you said instead.
"Among my many faults, ego is certainly one of them and knowing that you're part of me makes me love you even more"
WHO ELSE BUT SCANLAN
Giggedy giggedy. All right.
vegeta
I hope you're watching Campaign 2.
How does he turn a weakness into a strength? Charm personified!
And it WORKS! Hahaha
Matt Mercer is the master of "Yes, and..." roleplaying. He rewards the characters constantly for being who they are. Vex was nonstop suspicious about the band stealing from them, and so he paid it off by actually having her be right. Scanlan's character arc is about him turning from his old ways, and Matt pays that off by giving him a chance to prove it. Even on little ways, like by letting Keyleth use her Druid Craft for all kinds of silly nonsense. It makes the players feel like their choices matter and have serious impact in the world at large, which keeps them engaging in the game over and over again. Beautiful work, all of you.
I love this idea. It's something that I want to incorporate into my own dming
Just don't stunt your players and railroad what they can and cannot do lol @@SolarFlorad
And vax losing the discount at gilmore's but breaking up with him
I would be non-stop suspicious of the band too. I think it's less about rewarding Vex, and more about her avoiding the punishment of being naive with a bunch of scoundrels in your home. If she wasn't suspicious, they would just find out they lost a bunch of money.
@@Anegor Fun fact: you don't know that, you just made it up.
I love it when Liam laughs so hard he disappears off camera. And then rises back up like a chuckling vampire.
This is a beautiful description
and then you get revived, by the power of NECROMANCY
Chuckling vampier xD I love this xD
That's some serious core strength too
@@Ailieorz it’s one sit up
It will never not be funny how cumbersome Trinket is to the group, how defensive Laura/Vex is about him, and how little she uses him.
My only wish is that she didn't try to waste time stealthing him into obviously impossible places
If it adds to her fun and isn't hindering the players' ability to have fun then I don't see the issue.
Trinkets there for moral support
YES. Im going through CR for the first time, and have many months to go to get through just Campaign 1, but I immediately observed that Trinket is utterly useless, takes up valuable time and often puts the party in jeopardy. But thats ok! Its their silly game that we are merely observers of, and they all have fun with Trinket and adore him, so even if hes largely useless it doesnt matter one bit.
Ranger familiars could really use an overhaul since they lose utility fairly quickly :(
Matt managed to masterfully pull out at least some sincerity out of Scanlan, and Sam reacted pretty well. The only way I can describe it is that Matt pulled the rug out from under Sam, and he did a backflip and landed it.
That whole sequence was heartbreaking and Matt was trying so hard to have a serious heartfelt moment, but the fucking peanut gallery was cackling like banshees through half of it. So much respect to Travis for understanding what was going on and trying to hush the rest
He rolled a 20 on an Roleplying athletics save
Sam even had tears in his eyes when they called for break.
Sam’s roleplaying was *chef’s kiss* also his speech. Damn. I’m not a master of words so I’m just super amazed at Sam. He pulled emotions out of me.
@@Kasino80 Sam Riegel was just SO INTO IT, just like that. What a legend. When he was wiping his eyes at the break my heart was breaking. This was one of the best scenes in the entirety of critical role, with one of Scanlan's most iconic quotes.
I love how the whole party uses Pike as a threat to literally anyone, like she's a walking holy nuke. Love that cleric!
But she's as non-threatening as possible, she's sweet
@@FurbGurger *Vietnam flash-back when she slit an incacapitated dwarf's throat whit her morningstar*
@@privpi In that episode Matt explicitly said that as "she slit the duergars throat with the morningstar's jagged spikes". It is seems since then she upgraded her weapon to something else (the mace of disruption is what she wielded during the fight at the Ziggurat).
@@gdobrocsi Oh ok sorry I forget things realy easy
One could say she's a holy hand grenade
"I once saw him kill a man with his taint."
"-with his OWN taint."
I adore this show
Yeah but did he kill three people in a bar with a fucking pencil?
@@Bhatmaniac I got the reference.
The Bhatman true.. but isn’t the taint mightier than the pencil? I mean, a pencil is sharp.. it can definitely be used to stab multiple people. But to kill someone with your taint.. man... you REALLY want that dude dead to kill them with 2 1/2-3 inches of swamp-ass inundated skin. When asked “how do you want to do this?” And you answer “WITH MY TAINT!” You REALLY mean business.
I lost it when that happened! LIKE WHAT IS HAPPENING?! lmao
@@jaredphillips129 what even is "taint"? non native english speaker, and i can't get my head around it
"I know we are about to execute you, but have you heard of Gilmore's Glorious Goods?"
Did it really happen? Did I miss this? Time stamp plz xD
@@eoftar3192 I'm fairly certain it happened about 5 episodes prior to this one
GGG is the Raid Shadow Legends of Vox Machina
@@alexfelton5299 ikr?
"Im apart of his new rewards program. One more purchase and i get a small discount"
It's amazing how Matt can remember the names and personalities and voices of 700 different NPCs, but keeps mixing up Vex and Vax's names.
Vax'ilDAN and Vex'ahLIA could have made things easier on everyone by going by Dan and Lia
Easy(ish) solution, just use their full names. Vax'ildan and Vex'ahlia are much harder to mix up.
I fully believe he does it intentionally.
I mean honestly most parents interchange the names of their children by accident often lol
and I feel like as the DM to players..to close friends you're guiding along...its very similar 😅
This might be slightly off topic, but I always mess them up, too, since I am not native English and their pronunciation is too similar for me to differentiate. The full names are fine though. And also the similarity is probably the point. Love it
"You can't Divine the sad out of alcohol."
´That man is so right. Percival [...] de Rolo the third is my spirit animal.
Spirit as in the drink, of course! Prost.
Where is this?!?!
1:03:13
no but you CAN arcana the sad out. technically heroes feast both cures and immunizes you from poison. alcohol is a form of poisoning so they should have been immune to being drunk after that.
Add that to the: “potential tattoo” list
Holy crap, Gilmore's cool. That was a tough rejection, but what a cool moment of RP.
Reeee Vaxmore forever reeee
Who knows. Maybe Gilmore married a brass dragon. Yet a half dragon or two appearing in campaign 2 or later could be interesting.
Maybe Gilmore IS a brass dragon.
I'll always ship VaxMore the most. I just loved the two of them together -- they seemed so much more compatible than Vax and Keyleth to me (although I did eventually care about the ship in the very end).
Vax telling Gilmore about him being in love and not being able to flirt anymore broke my heart, guys.
Literally same
Breaks my bi, poly heart
"I am... in love. With someone I don't think.. loves.. me..." broke me. Too close to home and too recently real when I already relate to Vax the most out of the group. Fuckin hell.
Same I was team Gilmore even seeing comments about Vax & Keylith and knowing it was a sinking ship 😭😭
The exchange between Vax and Gilmore is what makes DnD, GREAT DnD. There was absolutely no need for that conversation to happen in order to progress the story, but it's what Vax would have done in that situation and Liam and Matt played it very well. All while the rest of the group let them be. They smiled a bit but they didn't call them out or anything, they just went with it.
Things like that are why Critical Role is so popular IMO.
Cutman3030 Liam is the best roleplayer on the show
So i know this is a year late, but:
Im quite deep into RPing my characters, but all the people I happen to play with are horrible at it and keep shoving everything out of the
world of imagination into a world of hard calculus and numbers...
As expected im getting a bit angry at that...
What do i do?
Leave until i find the right people?
Scold them and try to improve their RP?
Im certainly not accepting how it is and even if that sounds selfish, im not interested in being a single RPer in a meta-hell
@@MisterLimeLemon Hit me up if you'd like to talk it out. Maybe I can help may be not? Worth a trythough
@@MisterLimeLemon play a different system. D&D can be RP heavy but it is a game inherently dictated by numbers. Check out Genesys, and Edge of the Empire specifically.
@@MisterLimeLemon short of punishing their actions because they say something like "I did the thing" you need to tell people what you want and why you want it. If they are not on board it's at your discretion to call it quits or to keep going.
sam riegel owns in this episode
im in complete awe that his little speech in the bedroom was off the cuff yet beautifully delivered and slick as hell. AND it was so perfectly scanlan, equal parts charming and sleazy and lucky and yet also heartfelt. self preservation mixed with ego mixed with a genuine glimmer of desire to begin changing for the better
this man was born to play a bard. my goodness
+
As someone from the cast once said: those improv classes finally paid off. :D
Watch the between the sheets with his wife. It seems his character is pretty comparable to his own early life before settling down with her. Agreed, great speech and development
I was waiting for a temptations "Papa was a rolling stone" reference that entire scene. Thats the only thing that would have made it more than perfect
You know, off the cuff actually means a prepared speech, that you have written the notes for on your cuff.
oh my GOD I know it's been 4 years but holy shit! Scanlan grew up with a single mother, conning, working and stealing to survive. Now, he's only repeated the cycle, leaving his daughter with a single, poor parent... he's looking at himself from his younger years and he wants to make it better, the thing that never happened to him. Damn this show and damn all this character development.
Yes, that parallel killed me just because it's so realistic. Toxic familial cycles like that are unfortunately so common. Unbeknownst to him, Scanlan ended up falling into his own father's steps, being absent from his kid's life.
And the roleplaying in that scene was magnificent as well. Damn this show indeed!
I love how Mercer set a trap for Scanlan here, and it couldn't have gone off more perfectly.
The perfect trap and the perfect response to the trap. I fucking love them.
The luckiest Nat 1 in DnD *history,* folks!
@@Draezeth The way he role played the nat 1 into a tender moment is what truly made the moment unforgettable.
I'd like to assume that Matt only really decided to go this route because of Sam's horrible yelp joke
I love how quickly this can go from them all laughing hysterically at Marisha and Taliesin in a strange position. To a very serious moment between Vax and Gilmore while nobody says a word.
Now I wana see what .gif's people made of it.
I laughed like crazy and then balled my eyes out. THE FEELS!
I love that Liam can do these smokey, intimidating, and seductive voices, and then his laugh is a bunch of seagulls 34:53
It also resembles dolphin sounds
Kinda cute, actually
My favourite comment here
The fact that it actual sounds like seagulls is amazing
Yes and it's one of the best things about him.
UNSOLICITED TIP: Rewatching this scene at 1,5x speed makes thae seagull laugh even more on point
Liam has now kissed both Marisha's character and Mercer's character... No more jealousy there.
Also Taliesin's character. Dang, Vax.
prideling When? I wasn't even aware perc'ildan was a thing
@@DGGB-- As a kind of joke when they were in the underdark after Pike gave Scanlan inspiration by kissing him, Vax tried to gain inspiration by kissing Percy. Mercer said no, but maybe next time if this was the start to something.
It’s like Gawain and the Green Knight
The Kissing Bandit
Laura freaking out about Trinket not being on the set and then having to go get him was absolutely hilarious.
Like honestly, these people are already so endearing but that whole little bit just made my side split and heart burst.
So glad she rolled a Nat 20 on her strength check to carry it back into the spot it belongs LOL
annoying, is the word i'd use. i hate that fucking bear... both the statue and the in game bear
@@omega311888 troll or salty for no reason
@@BanditLeader nope. just sick of her and that fucking bear. plus her and marisha slow things down waaaaaaaaay too much.
Keyleth: unsure of breaking into a house
Pike, the moral center of the party: LETS DO IT
She's the patron Saint of enabling
Probably when Fearne was born
She's not the moral center. Being a cleric of Sarenrae (a neutral good deity) means pike would fall close to that alignment. Means she leans more to a good moral compass. The moral compass is Keyleth as she's undoubtedly true neutral (like nearly every druid.) She's the one who has to pull the group to the center to come up with the best plan for everyone (though she is terrible at it). In reality Vax becomes the moral center as he is a Paladin of the Raven Queen who does not lean to evil or good she's neutral and recognizes that Death is the only sure thing in the world. And seeing as she's basically the one who decides where you go when you die
@@gamingcrypt117 Vax isn't a Paladin at this point yet.
@@gamingcrypt117 spoilers my man
"I'm yelping it"
Cue Matt going through the five stages of grief
Watching these back today, I’m convinced they gave Sam the role of advertising the sponsors at the beginning of the show just so he wouldn’t be late.
I think it's more because he showed his advertising skills while advertising for Gilmore's and all his inspiration songs/limericks. He just has a knack for it. Lol.
he wasn't late per se, he was rushing from other gigs. he did a lot of directing work at the time and those are long days, especially getting across town through LA traffic.
As the show got bigger and more permanant its was easier to plan your other gigs around the timing as well.
Its also easier to justify adding this in his contracts when its a job vs a hobby.
Additionally as the newer shows are pre-recorded the broadcast time does not necessarily reflect the filming, if Sam is 5 minutes late to set due to other commitments, then filming starts 5 minutes later but broadcast time is still the same and as viewers we know no different.
Not enough credit goes to Travis, his face lighting up whenever someone else in the group has a moment is beautiful.
Travis is the hype man, he genuinely loves seeing these epic moments happen for other people. Every group needs a Travis
Travis gets ample credit, but yes, it is nice how hyped he gets for other players' moments.
Travis is probably one of the best players at the table. Probably tied with Liam and Sam.
That was the greatest line in history scanlan..
"I have a bg ego, and just knowing your a part of me, makes me love u even more"
Somehow equally touching and conceited.
"I believe the term your looking for is "Scanlan", sir."
The Scanlan scene: THIS is one of the reasons this show is so popular.
stormhawk31 every Marisha scene: why it's not even bigger
BriSirnicky I never understood the Marisha hate. Orion could tweak out in a meth induced rage, metagame harder than anyone, and tell a married woman she gives him a hardon in front of her husband... and the fanbase is like "Dude he was having a bad day."
Marisha complains when her group goes full murder hobo because her character is neutral good... "OMG! Marisha is the worst." Or my favorite, Marisha's dump stat is charisma... so she acts socially awkward, "Marisha is so cringey."
icspps its classic woman hating thats all
Seriously. Your average DnD group just can't have a scene like this
It has nothing to do with woman hating, she is cringeworthy more than anyone in the group. I get the alignment aspect, but she is the worst sometimes. I will say she has some great ideas in tense moments sometimes. But this doesn’t outweigh the landslide of cringe that is Marisha sometimes.
Jesus Sam is good...that whole speech after discovering his daughter. That's about as good writing as I could do if I had 24hrs and a prompt on what the scene's about. He just did it off the cuff, every word just perfect
That whole scene was perfect DnD
Absolutely blew my mind. Especially in contrast to the awkward reaction Keyleth had to Vax’s proclamation of love (which I felt in my gut bc I would have reacted the same…I’m so bad at being put on the spot).
The Yelp joke had me in tears. From Liam's laugh that could cure cancer, to the "Oh" from Vex's character before she breaks down, to Pike's background laugh, and Keylith crumbling immediately.
Matt even knew a joke was coming. You could see it in his eyes that he knew it, and even did a head wiggle and glare as he was yelping as if to say "Bring it." Only to immediately lose the battle in disgust.
My favorite bit is this idea of a tiny gnome standing in the center of a group of hardened adventures all collapsed on the ground in disgust going "No? No?"
Easily my favorite moment of the series so far lol
@Gaawachan sounds like someone has cancer that needs curing.
@Gaawachan rip but i'm built different
@@ambskater97 Gaawachan was probably referring to the fact that, well, during that time Liam's mother was fighting a losing battle with cancer. Just, yeah.
@Gaawachan yes if only that laugh really could...you know damned well he would have tried. 💔💔
34:30 just so I have a damn time stamp to come back to forever lol
I feel like Ashley doesn't even role play. She's just that adorable in reality
Yeah she doesn't really roleplay at all
Yeah, but it feels the same way when she plays Yasha, a completely different character. It turns out she's good actor.
she is, I had a uh ahem.. friend and she had that type of personality. A shame what time can do.
@@whateverppl1229 What happened?
Yeah, don't tease us, what happened? You got annoyed with that personality and broke up with her? She got crotchety and mean with age? She got sick and died? Petrified by a beholder?
Everyone loves when a Nat20 agrees with the narrative, but man that Nat1 from Kaylie was amazing... 1:27:12
Yes! And I'm so thankful that it happened and for the way Matt translated that into Kaylie's actions. It made for such a convincing, tense but heart-felt moment...
Damn this show
The Dice Gods smile down on this show
"You can't divine the sad out of alcohol, I dont think thats how it works." - Talieson Jaffe
Best line EVER!!! So true
Matthews timing is so perfect. When the bar sequence started to get a bit boring.... Bammm! Gilmore, the parties favourite NPC shows up. He really lives and breathes his world. And he always reads the vibe of the party so well to keep the game at the pace and pitch it should be at. Amazing
And the whole dynamic between Gilmore and Vax is brilliantly played out by them both.
You know you've made it as a DM when your players treat your shopkeeper NPCs like human beings instead of game menus. Liam was brilliant as a player for having Vax feel genuinely guilty for leading Gilmore on for shop discounts and favors while his heart belonged to another. But it was equally brilliant for Matt to have Gilmore meet the party _outside_ the place the party normally meets him, like a living, breathing citizen of the city would. A lesson for all DM's who wish to encourage more RP from their players: Bring your NPC's to situations outside their job descriptions!
More like. After an entire episode inside a bar and previous episode being a festival. He was really not prepared for another "party time" episode. So he improvised to make it somewhat interesting.
@@Riverfall_ I mean, the festival episode was quite fun.
I think he knew the next day would be fighting so he gave them a hero’s feast.
@@sarawarlestedt7242 Or maybe he gave them a hero’s feast to encourage going out into danger. Would be a shame to waste effects of such powerful spell on downtime.
Talesin: "Let's start a pub crawl!"
Matt: *takes a biiig sip, probably thinking about all the NPCs he will have to improvise :D
Which was probably just like “Just dump Gilmore in there, they’ll love it and they probably won’t focus on anyone else”
@@professionalyusukesimp Which is exactly what happened lol
Love the idea of springing a pub crawl on a DM who's probably planned out one tavern per town and maybe two or three for a large city. "You find yourself in the Green Dragon, there's a grizzled halfling behind the bar and a shadowy cloaked figure sits in the--" "We down our pints and leave, where next?" "Er... you make your way to the... Blue... Unicorn. There's a half-orc behind the bar and a cleric is drowning his sorrows at--" "Done, next!" "The Beige Bugbear. There's a Cloaker behind the bar and a grisly half-halfling is arm-wrestling an orc cleric in the corner."
"I'm yelping it"
*Everyone crumples in laughter and disgust*
That joke was so awful it was good.
@@damienvoidstar It really was XD
sry, non-native here: could someone explain that joke? seemed to be quite fun
@@laBEEm There is a service called "Yelp" that lets you look for and rate resturaunts and stores. Yelp also means "a sharp sound made with the voice usually in response to something." So when Sam started yelling he was "yelping" as the sound to find a tavern.
@@phestojen7966 thanks :)
Grog and Craven Edge are a great combination, because they both already love killing so there was not very much corruption going on.
I love it just because Grog is just...too stupid to really corrupt. Convince to do evil things, maybe, but like...he's gonna listen to Pike over anybody else even a sword so...
I can totally see this as a "Gru explaining evil plan" meme format like:
"Be sentient evil sword"
"Find a worthy champion and corrupt them to do evil"
"He's too dumb to corrupt"
"He loves killing so it doesn't matter anyway"
Taliesin saw Keyleth grow mushrooms out of decay and thought I'm going to base a whole character on that.
That scene between Vax and Gilmore was so lovely. Exactly what I wanted for them when I realised what was happening. Doesn't turn their flirting into a joke, doesn't pretend it didn't mean anything - just a wonderful, mature end to that part of their relationship, and also an excellent way to have the Vax/Keyleth storyline continue while he is still respecting her enough to give her space.
i like the fact that matt mercer looked into the camera as he said "toothy maw".
he's aware of the meme XD
Would ya fill me in on that? I was a bit lost when he said that and acted like it was odd
@@Thee_Jadex he has used toothy maw a lot of times that the community memes it XD
@@ziforyu "Deal with it! It's the perfect circumstance for the term!" Had me cackling
Sams Face = realizing what's going on. oooooooh
Tals Face = You EARNED this! Take it! TAKE IT ALL IN!
Can you imagine what might have happened if Kaylie didn't crit fail?
Also, to quote Hamilton, "Your father's a scoundrel and so, it seems, are you."
that was THE most epic Natural 1 in the entire campaign. The best fucking storytelling moment.
i bet mat fudged the role on that one just because of the rule of cool
@@WarLoqGamer please explain to a very new noob?
@@JulieMullen Fudging is the act of rolling dice without anyone else seeing and telling a different result than the actual roll, fudging is something DMs do to help the game have a better flow and when it's done by players it's most of the times cheating.
@@ped3752thanks for answering! I know what fudging is; but what is the rule of cool?
"I'm yelping it..." I totally lost it, tears streaming down from laughing so hard. Sam Riegel...you...complete me.
I don't get it?
Never mind. My dad explained it to me. And I couldn't stop laughing for about a minute. 😂
Explain it to me please xD
My guess would be that it's a reference to www.yelp.com/
+Zoyarox Craszen I've already explained to another but I'll give you the short version. Yelp is a website where you can search for businesses and a yelp is a short sharp cry of pain or alarm.
"She's going to rob you blind."
He... he already gave her all his money. What else
I mean, she did take his dignity, and pride too....
@@FatalHog He did escape with his balls intact though.
Plenty of magical items left
Her heart obviously
Almost literally. Left ventricle then right ventricle and the other bits
Wait so, did scanlan… pay child support?
Craven Edge and Grog... the weapon is smarter than its wielder.
Together they are the comedy.
Together they are the comedy.
I thought the saying was "be smarter than the tool you are using" I guess that doesn't work for any of frogs weapons
+ChaosWolf1982 And yet that might be what saves his ass, he is slowly wearing CravenEdge down emotionally
+ChaosWolf1982 I just hope the sword doesnt try to control him more, otherwise eventually he will lose it, and I feel like they deserved something cool from that whole vamp arc. The sword and Grog are so perfect together so would hate for that to be ruined.
damn dude, the bard class is so perfect for Sam. His way of playing it is flawless!
DnZpcGaming Makes you wonder who they're going to play next. How can they play anything else?
gotta say now hes doing an amazing job in season 2
Kathryn Livingston a little goblin girl who tells the best/worst jokes
@@kgga3 you know what. They pulled it off, campaign 2 is even more fun and relatable
@@erisplaysgames I like campaign 2 more tbh, it's much more... Human and realistic which leads to emotions feeling even rawer
Good god, massive props to Matt and Sam. The character development for Scanlan in that one scene absolutely _floored_ me
Yeah, I thought Scanlan was just being a jokester with pike and being good to impress her but it is true that he has been more heroic and selfless, braver and moral since the campaign started... the realisation that what he said was Honest hit me Hard
A part of me is sad that Scanlan didn't end up choosing Sybil over Pike, to own up to his mistakes.
That aside though, that bit of RolePlay between Matt and Sam is my favorite part of this series so far.
Sam and Matt taking this moment and making it such a huge and meaningful character arc... few shows have a comic relief who's also probably the most interesting character.
You mean like sokka?
@@manaphy0993 Nah-a, Zuko is best bae.
Sam and Matt, the MVPs of Campaign 1.
Laura's little 'help me' at 12:44 is simultaneously the saddest and cutest thing I've ever heard
1:01:22 . The sound of a DM scrapping 6 seasons and a movie of numerous romantic misadventures and a wedding.
Zed - "You're more than welcome to stay here with us."
Vex - "Yeah she is 'cause it's our house"
Zed - "................Right......"
xD lol I love Vex sometimes
I love Vex all the time, she's my favorite :D
Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing what would have happened if Keyleth had stayed with the band. The drummer awkwardly flirting with her, her not knowing how to react, getting stories from Doc about Scanlan, maybe a mini battle or challenge as a result on their teasing or bad manners. Like a "Kiki's Day Out" episode.
'I stand next to Vex, irritated.'
Would you say Keyleth is... vexed?
You horrible punny blaggard. That's brilliant. :D
F
You have gained the ultimate pun honour: an anti inspiration d10 die. Congratulations
Go to your room and think about what you've done.
STOP IT!
How is nobody talking about the fact that Grog actually counted to ten in this episode? (Figures that he had to count shots to do it.)
Well he has 10 fingers, I was surprised when he counted to 11
You just figured out the best way to teach arithmetics to Grog
@@ped3752 hydras for division practice
I'm terrible at math but when counting poker chips I'm a freaking human calculator, I get it
@@demonzabraka year late but that's a good one
I have to give Travis credit for, thus far, giving me the biggest laugh when they were lining up Daxio for holy intimidation and he looks up, worry in his eyes, muttering a plea to his god of secrets, and Travis, either as Grog or not, just says, "You're looking the wrong way."
It was so perfectly smart and stupid at the same time, and that caused me to spit a mouthful of coffee on my laptop, then almost fall off my chair as I ran off to get some paper towels...
im just imagining Pike shoving the holy symbol into his mouth yelling
"YOU *WILL* BE HOLY, YOU DICK"
With like vox machina and sarenrae chanting in the backround
"BLESS! BLESS! BLESS! BLESS!"
This is THE best comment of the entire episode! lol
If I were to comment on the ethics of that execution, I don't even know where to begin xD
I could only imagine Yuriel and the palace guards cringing in the background throughout the entire part!
evie the kiwi THE POWER OF SARAERAE COMPELS YOU!
Saving this for later.
We need Grog to lead all the stealth missions from now on
“THERE’S NO ONE AT THE DOOR! IT SMELLS LIKE ROSES INSIDE!”
Very Grog to just go forward
13:00 - the fact that Travis has a pillow on his chair is making me realize how incredibly uncomfortable those chairs look, if you have to sit on them for four hours at a stretch.
Awwwwwww. I loved Vax and Gilmore... but I like that Vax is man enough to break it off. (I love Liam's roleplaying so much.)
my favourite thing about is like... its immediate? he doesnt send a letter to break it off but the moment vax sees him in person after confessing love to keyleth, he breaks it off. he doesnt prolong it. doesnt try to get both. hes a man of honour
Honestly, I still prefer Vax and Gilmore, although by the end of C1 I was finally able to buy the Vax/Keyleth ship.
Still like him in S2? so tough to watch.
@@Haveuseenmyjetpack wait why?
@@randomonlineuser6401 boring, seemingly depressed, overly cautious, slow speaking with an iffy German accent. Generally bland. Droning/monotonous. A drag.
Taliesin is a phenomenal player. You can really see how differently Percy is behaving, and gradually too. This fills my heart with joy!
Aw, that Vax-Gilmore scene was so sad but also cathartic.
Halsey Lathia I first read that as "also Catholic,"
still fits oddly enough.
In the last 15 episodes I've fallen so hard for each of these characters. Pike is a total mom-friend though, and she's a beacon of levity every episode that Ashley can make it to. As heavy as the Briarwood arc got, especially in the beginning (Tiberius' granny-grinding glaive and Percy maiming Desmond) every time Pike showed up, things got so much lighter, as if each player and even the DM all were so delighted to have Pike back that the grimdark got a little less grim and a little less dark.
Laura: *drags real trinket all the way through the studio on her own*
Scanlan: are we taking the bear?
Vex: *Angery ranger noises*
You achieved..... somewhat torturing someone...... with a healing spell.
How.
Alternating a slash of a sword with a casting of healing word. That's how.
There's this book I read called Eragon. In it, a woman was taught the magic word for 'heal' and pitted against 6 warriors. She healed all the warriors of their fears, their anger and their reasons to fight. They stood there grinning and smiling. She walked up to each of the warriors and slit their throats.
That's how you kill with a healing spell.
@@aronwith1a638 Man over here saying "this book I read" like everyone shouldn't know the Inheritance series. Jk hahaha, I freaking love those books! Was that really in Eragon or was it in one of the later books?
@@Kt4nk I think it was in Brisingr that it was written. Jeod tells Eragon about Morzans Black Hand, and we get this description.
The group I'm running now, in order to sell an attack to, in turn, sell an unconscious woman being taken to a port, beat her senseless, the cleric brought her back to consciousness, they beat her again, threw her out of a window (making her go unconscious again), then brought her back after they got to the port. It's possible, trust me.
Percy - a generally nice guy who is just a beacon for evil things.
He's goth AF
He's a pretty bad guy.
Really not a nice guy
percy is a villain that convinced vm to let him join them... wouldnt surprise me if he'd doom their entire world on a whim...
@@SomeKindaSpy Give him some credit, he did have his whole family slaughtered and was then possessed by a demon for like 3-4 years
-Trinket is a bear!
-Yes. A wise bear.
Best argument i have ever heard.
"Pretend you're a Dallas Cowboy and DROP IT."
Daaaaaamn. Sassy Scanlan.
I'm surprised he even knew enough about football to make a joke like that
He's a redskins fan
Korra it's also because Travis is from Texas and is a Cowboys fan
It’s 6/21/21 and you’re now at 666 likes
depressing
"I'm going with you to protect you. Because God knows Trinket won't." Scanlon. 😂
Grog and his sword is probably the greatest comedy duo in the history of man. I don't want... grog to be evil... but i'm with Ashley i kind of want to see where this goes a bit further. grade A comedy.
More Grog talking to a sword. Let’s see how long the thing in the sword lasts before it say peace out.
Low-key Gilmore calls Vecna arrogant and I about died.
Gilmore's not arrogant. A bit haughty and self assured, but he knows his limits.
@@Striker2054
Spoilers for later
The man fully tried to take thordak by himself. He may slightly overestimate his abilities from time to time
@@derblobinmeister3006 I got to that point (I think.) It was less trying to win, more trying to stall so the family could escape.
@@Striker2054 that could be true it's been a hot second since I've rewatched season one.
@@derblobinmeister3006 It's part of why he gets wrecked and why most of the Royal Family survived the attack.
2:30:12 "Oh God, it's going to talk to me, isn't it?"
Poor Taliesin had PTSD from all the cursed objects and demons talking in his character's head.
Vex: I don't support breaking into a house we've already been to to steal
Also Vex: *filling the bag of holding with gold from house they broke into*
Also, "Vex kept to the woods, she preferred the isolation." Became obsessed with the civilized concept of coin.
I mean it's Vex her greed rivals dragons XD
@@calebfreeman8284 - She preferred the isolation because she thinks everybody is after her money 🤣
Vex: With advantage!
Scanlan: It wont matter.......... 31
Best thing I've seen in weeks
And then she still resisted the damn thing... bards, man
I love how Matt loves to mess with everyone with like, “I’m gonna describe this thing like something bad is about to happen... and it’s totally normal!”
You can just see in his eyes how much he loves to screw with them 🤣
Totally.
06:10 - Game starts, part 1 begins
07:50 - No one remembers what the troop name was
11:40 - WHERE IS MY BEAR?!?!
19:50 - Vox Machina gets side-tracked a lot during interrogations
21:20 - Vax Intimidation
30:07 - Grog enjoyed that a little too much
31:02 - The Odd Couple
34:40 - Scanlan "yelps it"
37:02 - Matt checks his yellow pages
40:03 - Drunk Keyleth
42:32 - GILMORE!!
43:59 - Grog Cleaning Off Tables
46:04 - Keyleth is a lightweight
51:55 - Scanlan vs. Grog at darts
57:48 - GIF Material
58:35 - Vax & Gilmore
1:06:08 - Keyleth is a drunk college kid
1:17:14 - Scanlan wants to bone Kaylee
1:19:05 - Scanlan Invites Kaylee to His Room
1:21:20 - The revelation
1:30:36 - Part 1 ends, break begins
1:43:58 - Break ends, Part 2 begins
2:07:46 - Scanlan inspires Pike with a limerick
2:32:48 - Priorities, Vox Machina
2:37:48 - Scanlan licks the wall
2:53:55 - Everyone is suspect now
3:00:20 - Part 2 ends, game ends
3:01:26 - The group sings the theme song from Ducktails
3:02:22 - Fan art [does anyone know the name of the music being played during this segment, please? I absolutely love it!]
3:10:09 - Critmas
i am disapointed at your time stamps! you didn't include the 'toothy maw' 2:59:42 XD
The song at the end is Twin Elms from the Pillars of Eternity Original Soundtrack
It’s pillars of Eternity album song is Twin Elms. A lot of music used during campaign 1 and 2 is from it
Kyshakk .
Kyshakk these time stamps are really great to read out of context and guess what they’re actually about when you first start watching the series
I know I'm a little late to the party, but can I just say that Sam/Scanlan's moment this episode was actually breathtaking? I have never seen something so incredible in a D&D game, that was so real. Kudos guys, really awesome job!
You'r breathtaking !
@@tenshi7366 damn it! I am too late!
Sam has the most real and the most incredible moments in Campaign 1!! Also, if you're late what does that make us? LOL
@@SocialistSadako I like to think of us, 2021 kids, as the rearguard, La Résistance. So glad and relieved to read I'm not alone in being THIS late to the party ^^
I've only just picked CritRole up so this is my first watch and I've heard of the Matt Mercer effect but didn't understand how powerful it is. The moment he RP'd Gilmore discussing Vecna with Vex and had seemlessly changed the soundtrack from raucous tavern, to plinky mystery music, and back in line with the intimacy of the moment was astounding. I didn't even consciously notice it until the sound of patrons came back in. That was some immersive shit yo.
The best thing about Sam yelping it is Matt's face when he starts scheming an appropriate response.
"ok yep scanlans the father!"
" the white duke...finest of the bards, he was." rip david bowie
Absolutely
Amen😔🦊
I never thought I would cry for Scanlan, but man, that scene was GOOD. Matt and Sam both played that perfectly, and that natural 1 on the attack was just, wow... The fates willed it, guys! As a new critter, sloooooooooowly working my way through the episodes ('cause I'm a mom, and it's been a LONG time since I could dedicate hours of binging a day), I can't wait to see what this means for Scanlan as a character!!!
A year later what do you think? Did you continue scanlan's evolution all the way to the end; if you have reached it?
@@caosisaac I reached the end, yes :) I'm 20 eps in on Mighty Nine.
I enjoyed Scanlan's character arc immensely! I think the entire group played it really well, reacted authentically as their characters would and had a great deal of respect for the artistic process. I particularly enjoyed Liam's response to the criticism the group got for 'ignoring Scanlan's derailing' - "If a guy with 35 charisma tells you he's fine, then you believe it".
Not meta-gaming in such an instance is insanely hard, as my players can attest to, as you obviously want to comfort your friend even if your own PC doesn't realize something is wrong. It was a wonderful story to experience :D
@@michellepehrsondupont3756 It is. Sam is great at making "simple" characters that will turn out to have a lot of depth. Now you get to look forward to Nott the Brave's development :)
The entire cast losing their shit while Matt and Sam rp the daughter reveal is such an on brand cr experience
I think Laura was the first to catch on too. 🤣
They just fucking blackmailed a guy with holy redemption. Only in D&D.
NightAuror they almost killed a guy with lesser restoration...
Goldmail!
"Because among my many faults, ego is certainly one of them, and knowing you are part of me makes me love you even more." - The best line of the show.
Absolutely. Off the dome, Sam’s a genius.
If looks could kill, Vex would have her own keep filled with gold and nobody to go on adventures with
scabbynacker
Tictactoe Gaming
That whole bit with Vex looking for the box has been my favorite Vex moment so far!
Don't mess with Vex's money.
scabbynacker f
34:40 Scanlan yelping is officially the funniest thing I've seen out of all 38 episodes. I almost peed my damn pants, Sam.
+iAmTheTot DAMN RIGHT!
agreed!
I don't get it.
Yelp is an app or something that helps you find certain things in your local area, such as pubs, and Sam made yelping sound
Pretty sure he broke Liam xD
Matt had to show the unused map just to score that "I had it and it went unused" point most DMs feel in their core! It's been 38 episodes, and it's all been great, but this one episode, especially that part really got to me for some reason. Man I'm a sucker for reunions. Cryptic comment but don't wanna spoil anything for anyone else! Happy watching :D
A time stamp for this moment would be swell.
@@demonzabrak 1:30:45 i think
@@attila4480 Thank you Mr. The Hun.
The truest curse of the forever DM. The accordion folders of unused maps and stat blocks is an ever growing problem. After 15+ years in the hobby i could probably cobble together a full year long campaign just with the mountain of unused assets I’ve kept.
I thank you for the spoiler free comment! So many times I’m tripping through and laughing at the comments to hit a spoiler with no warning and am like… darn…
'I'm Yelping it.'
Chaos ensues, Matt designs a new game mechanic, and either they released a baby alligator into the room or that's just Liam laughing REALLY hard
Vax's cloak rack is still my favourite random comment that has come out of this show.
+UmbreonsFire what's the time stamp on that?
MonarchRigel 2:06:10
"shhhh follow me... Squeek squeek squeek"
Having a cloak collection seems so much more reasonable then what my characters tend to do.. as a DM I rarely play and I always play evil, habit being the bad guy I guess LOL. My favorite collections have been the bones of everyone the party killed (ended up with a bone tower guarded by an army of bone golems), dead bunnies, and the peeled off faces of my fellow party members (never be the one to pass out first when drinking LOL).
It was super funny but it does bug me that he has a bunch of cloaks/items that the group could actually use, but he is just hording them...
Watching everyone's faces as they realise who Kailey is is amazing
So good - I think Laura realized it first (she was whispering to Liam right beforehand), but Travis's jaw dropping and when he hides in his shirt is my favorite.
Unfortunately I'm listening to these at work, so I didn't see the faces
'You're looking wonderful today'
'Oh yes thanks well ohoho you-'
'Mmm yeah BOX BOX BOX where'd it go BOX'
1:00:00 Vax commits to future love and ends it with Gilmore. Meanwhile, Keyleth is outside the tavern blowing Percy.
Can you write the synopsis of the other episodes just like this please?
sounds like prom night
Actually, I think she was blowing chunks.
Chunks is Percy's childhood nickname. :p
That Talahar Guy hahahahaha omg 😂 that was perfect
Kaylie: 'You know I've heard most of these stories... from my mother Sybil.'
Scanlan: 'Who?'
My favorite part of the entire season.
1:56:50
This whole interaction with post-drunk Keyleth trying to talk shit about the group is made so much better with Travis's gentle jabs as she comes up with something
I mean I think even Travis (through grog) sees how full of shit her holier than thou attitude is. I hope keyleth matures more as time goes on!
Scanlan's ARC and Percy's ARC 10/10 right now Scanlan is hella good at improvisation that whole situation with Scanlan and his daughter was so good it seemed scripted
He seemed really giddy/trying to hold back smiling the whole time leading up to it. I think he discussed it with mercer
I doubt it. Sam is very good at improv. Hence Mercer rewarding him for comming up with such a great speech.
It did seem as if Sam knew something more than that. I think he knew something was coming up, maybe not exactly the truth but still something
Scalan thought he was getting laid....
I wouldn't doubt if it was spur the moment. It seems like alot of his inspirations and cutting words are. That man is a beast at improv.
1:26:12 This entire sequence, besides initially being comedy gold, is also storytelling gold. Knowing Scanlan's past... that himself was raised by a single mother, his father absent. He's fallen into the same destructive pattern as his father before him.
We can only hope he and Kaylie will be able to break the cycle.
I nearly died at the Yelp bit. Sam is bloody hilarious
Some of the interaction moments in this episode were amazing. I'm never gonna get bored with this group, am I.
+AnkokuEvangeline Favorite moments (there were SO MANY!) :
11:42 Vex getting Trinket
34:30 The group treating Percy like a genius for suggesting a pub crawl + their reaction to "the worst joke Sam's ever done"
Keyleth parties hard: 40:23 , 52:20 , 55:20 , 57:45 (+ the perfect use of the word "druidcraft"), 1:06:07 , 1:08:59 , 1:15:50
This whole segment: 1:02:47 - 1:05:00
51:55 Beautiful Sam & Travis improv
1:20:33 A bomb is slowly being dropped on Scanlan, but then miracles happen
1:46:56 Vex is paranoid/right
1:56:43 Grog's teasing
1:59:20 The Trinket debate: Vex vs. Sam followed by Laura's and Liam's improv
Grog teasing Vex: 2:05:33 , 2:09:45
2:06:13 Vax's cloak rack
2:07:46 Scanlan's limerick
2:30:07 Percy a little evil magnet
2:36:42 Grog's playing detective
2:54:41 and 2:56:53 Vex's reaction to a pile of gold
3:01:25 Instant Duck Tales
***** I'm happy to hear that. I know some people grew to dislike her when she brought up her issue with Kima's quest or when her backstory came up.
***** I love how thorough Marisha is in playing Keyleth's awkwardness. A part of it must be her naturally (for example, basically every time the group sings something, she's the one that keeps singing when everybody has stopped, so she akwardly looks around and trails off), a part of it is the dice (almost everytime she tries to do or say something cool), but most of it is her consistent performance.
***** Wait, when did she diss him? You mean by the Sun Tree during Winter's Crest? Once she realized they were having a serious talk, she chose her words very carefully.
***** Oh, I got it. Dissing usually means disrespecting or treating badly. so I was confused.
It’s really obvious which of these guys are dads based on how they interact with kids. Both Sam and Liam just seem so soft when kids are involved
This episode goes to Scanlan/Sam Riegel :) That man knows how to use his words ^^ I wonder how long this plotline was planned out!
+Emile Vinesh Mercer is a genius!
+Emile Vinesh Let's not forget "yelp"ing the pub crawl.
Mercer does love playing the long game so he probably had this prepared since they left to whitestone.
Mercer does love playing the long game so he probably had this prepared since they left to whitestone.
A little while longer :)
I just wanted to say, I'm a fanfiction writer and I've started rereading some of my own stories, looking for spelling errors and how to revise and edit them so they sound better. And, while I'm reading, instead of hearing my own voice in my head, I've started hearing Matt's, including his various voices.
This either means he's an excellent storyteller, or I've been watching far too many Critical Role episodes lately.
Not complaining. Just wanted to say that.
Tara Teeter Neeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd
To be on this episode one must be a Neeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd.
It's two years later, but as a fellow fanfiction writer, I've found that hearing the voices of the VAs means you're getting it right.
Whatever the source, it's not nerdy or weird to hear familiar voices in one's head when thinking about how a character speaks.
As for it being a little crazy, I sometimes talk like characters I'm writing in the middle of the process just to gauge their inflections, which, to an outside observer makes me look loony... I call it method writing.
Maybe both? Yeah? Both. No, wait, no such thing as too many. LOL