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aspiringsophrosyne · 1 year

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Episode 9: The Tide of Bone

Zombie invasion! Bar the doors and fortify the mall, because all they wanna do is eat your brains.

The Good

Right off the bat, I loved the extra story we got for the Briarwoods. This is something Matt talked about at the wrap up, but we didn't get to see in the Campaign.

Plus, this justifies Delilah not letting her husband help with the fight in Whitestone, which could've turned the tides. She's too desperate to hold on to him. So much so, that it could've ultimately cost them their victory.

And not only does this flashback establish character and motivation for the couple, but also.....as bad as the Briarwoods are, the thing they serve has the potential to be so, so much worse. That scene with Delilah drawing her own blood is honestly still hard to watch.

Hey, I never noticed that poor family wriggling on the tree in that wide shot. Ew.

The fights were fun. The jokes weren't bad. Seeing Bad News used in to take down a giant was damn good. Seeing Kiki flex with some truly impressive magic was another hell yes moment, and good set up for the Sunbeam spell later.

Nice use of Percy's full name. I'd honestly started to wonder if they were going to leave that on the cutting room floor, but they picked a very good moment to use it.

I liked how they handled Vax and Keyleth here. While you get why Vax is doing it (he's liked her for a while and he doesn't want to die without her knowing it) you also get why Keyleth reacts the way she does (she does not need the distraction when they're fighting a hoard of zombies). It's surprisingly cute. And leaves the door open for further romantic development down the road.

Of course the lady of the episode is one Ms. Pike Trickfoot, swooping in at the last second to take out a shit ton of zombies, mirroring what went down in the campaign. It was such a cool moment in the original (especially since this was the first time Ashley could be back in a while) and they did it justice. Thank your Clerics, everybody! Her giving the common folk of the town some holy weapons was a nice touch.

I also just have to point out Vax repeatedly exclaiming "Ew!" or "Gross!" over the course of the episode because....mood.

The Bad

This...is another episode where the pacing does it no favors. There are multiple points in the episode where staying attached at the hip to our protagonists was unneeded and actually hurt the story.

For instance, while they were catching their breath in the safe house, we could've cut to outside. Where a bigger and bigger group of undead was accumulating out there. Then they attack. This breeds suspense and "The zombies are coming, get out of there!" type reactions. Which are always fun.

Meanwhile, the action doesn't grow; just stays constant throughout. That might sound like something you want. But you don't.

What you want is for the action to ebb, flow, and build. You want slower, safer moments that give a false sense of hope. You want the characters to think they're safe while the audience is shown that they absolutely are not. But you want every subsequent lull to be shorter, every new attack to be longer or more brutal. You want a feeling of escalation. And since we don't have that, Pike's entrance doesn't feel like the relief it should. It just feels like more action. It's great, but not as great as it could and should be.

As for Archie....not a fan of fridging. It just feels cheap. I know both Dominic Monaghan and Rory Mccan were not going to be sticking around. But they could've done something more interesting with Archie's exit.

Thinking about it now, I actually wouldn't have minded mixing Father Reynal with this version of Archie. Have him be a posthumous character, (which justifies Dominic not sticking around) but let VM find his notes. They could be read in Archie's voice and include flashbacks to resistance efforts he was up to before he died. Have the last note be specifically addressed to Percy, telling him not to give up, expressing complete faith that he was still alive and would eventually come back to oppose the Briarwoods. And that's what inspires Percy to use his full name and lead the rest of the town into battle.

Or, you know, something else. Not saying that's the best thing that could've happened, but it was another option.

Whelp, were winding up for the endgame now. See you in the next episode.

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hayleysayshay · 1 year

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oh god, im so excited for the new season of tlovm. i am HYPED. saw the IGN review and the worst thing they said was the many liberties with the source material and that it's tropey. i love tropes, and i already had guessed this season would have large departures, only confirmed by the reorganisation of the episode order.

like a massive appeal of the first season (once it got going past the first two) was the tropeyness of it. when i was an actual kid i used to watch cartoons and wish for more real stakes, i hated how things were undone. My favourite episodes of doctor who were the ones where the doctor or companions were in very serious peril. And tlovm has the stakes but it's also pretty fun and feels like an epic adventure, it's adult whilst still feeling like a fun cartoon, whereas most adult cartoons are just funny jokes. I really enjoy that aspect of that. So yeah full on tropes please I want that.

and place your bets on what the changes to campaign 1 will be (other than just rearranging the order a bit). unhinged take is vax causes vex's death not percy's (which i don't think they'd do as it would honestly gut percy out of anything to really angst over in season 2 and vax has enough angst already).

#tlovm #you make it sound like a bad thing IGN #like yeah campaign 1 is the most trad fantasy adventure #they fight dragons like yeah it is #critical role #anyway tlovm scratched my brain in such a way that hasn't been since like #i want to say tlok but maybe steven universe future #or arcane #or the really good episodes of game of thrones

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acepalindrome · 1 year

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I posted 13,781 times in 2022

That's 288 more posts than 2021!

1,228 posts created (9%)

12,553 posts reblogged (91%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@deepest-dope

@quinn-of-aebradore

@americankimchi

@quarterpasttired

@treesofgreen

I tagged 7,259 of my posts in 2022

Only 47% of my posts had no tags

#ofmd - 1,083 posts

#critical role - 970 posts

#animals - 630 posts

#our flag means death - 576 posts

#art - 442 posts

#food - 354 posts

#tlovm - 332 posts

#pokemon - 218 posts

#tlovm spoilers - 203 posts

#elden ring - 189 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#because if the person on the throne croaks and there’s not an heir then suddenly there’s a power vacuum and that’s when wars and shit happn

My Top Posts in 2022:

Matt confirmed to be voicing a Good Boy.

3,021 notes - Posted January 24, 2022

The annual Rexxentrum Cat Show is somewhat famous for offering magical items for their grand prizes (they realized long ago that wizards tend to be cat people, and the prizes help drum up support and attention around the city.) This year the prize is a particularly rare spell book. One that Caleb and Essek are both very very interested in. Naturally, the logical thing to do is have one of them polymorph into a cat and enter the contest to try to cheat their way to a fancy new spell book.

3,391 notes - Posted January 8, 2022

Wild to me that people are getting mad at Taika Waititi for not making Love and Thunder gayer, when Disney has a long and well documented track record of blocking queer rep in their IPs. Meanwhile Taika is working on season 2 of the gay pirate romcom in which he kisses his best friend on the mouth and is very enthusiastic about this being a love story between two men and clearly cares about making a genuine unambiguous queer romance. But yeah, it’s definitely his fault that Marvel only does blink-and-you’ll-miss-it queer rep. Obviously.

5,202 notes - Posted July 11, 2022

Since there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing a mass Twitter exodus soon, please remember that the block button is your best friend. If you see someone intentionally shit-stirring and/or engaging in clown behavior, just block ‘em. Don’t engage, don’t argue with them, don’t give them attention. I really don’t want this site to go back to the way it was before the porn ban, so do your part to help keep the drama levels low.

7,936 notes - Posted April 26, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I need everyone who’s new to Critical Role/TLOVM to know this is Taliesin Jaffe (the voice of Percy) at his senior prom.

14,278 notes - Posted February 7, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #OOF

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aviouslyy · 1 year

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I posted 469 times in 2022

That's 406 more posts than 2021!

9 posts created (2%)

460 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@cock-holliday

@breadwarlock

@azcrowleyfell

@beatlesweatles

@marble-guts

I tagged 124 of my posts in 2022

#tlt - 12 posts

#nona spoilers - 6 posts

#fanart - 5 posts

#q - 3 posts

#spooky season queue - 3 posts

#music - 2 posts

#btvs - 2 posts

#dw - 2 posts

#yes - 2 posts

#tlovm - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#i look at my facebook memories and i allow myself to delete one cringe post a day and eventually i will wipe any evidence of my teen self

My Top Posts in 2022:

14, 16, 22, 43 for the book meme??

Some of these are HARD, but ty anon!

14. Name a book where the movie/tv adaptation was actually better than the original

Mean Girls (lol I assume I haven’t actually read Queen Bees and Wannabees)

16. If you could bring 3 books to a deserted island which would you bring and why?

I’m going to cheat for one of these and I don’t care, this question is always the WORST

- His Dark Materials: the complete trilogy

- Gideon the Ninth

- Stone Butch Blues

22. Pro or anti e-readers? Why?

Pro! I’m a fan of anything that increases access to books/info/stories. (But I’m not a fan of DRM and other bullshit that comes up with corporations owning everything that enables access, so it’s a little complicated, fuck kindle)

Personally, being able to get ebooks digitally during pandemic/lockdown times has been so so important to me. I prefer the feeling of paper books, and screens can trigger my migraines so I try to avoid overuse, but I really love being able to jump right into whatever ARC I’m reading on my phone when I’m out and waiting in line or something.

43. Are you the kind of person who reads several books at once or the kind of person who can only read one book at a time?

I read SO MANY at a time, but usually one main fiction book, and often I’ll get to the point where that’s the only thing I can focus on.

Currently in my rotation:

- Cloud Atlas (reading so I can watch the movie as part of our Wachowskis watch through)

- Summer by Ali Smith (I’ve been reading the Seasonal Quartet along with the seasons)

- One new release for every month of the year

- Book Riot’s Read Harder challenge

- Theoretically, a book off my to-read shelf at home, one for each letter of the alphabet, by author’s last name

- Non-fiction on various topics I love

- Books by Indigenous authors/art books for work

- As many new graphic novels as possible for an ALA thing

- Buddy reads with Jo

- Spanish learning books

- Dracula Daily

- Theoretically, books my spouse and I are reading out loud to each other (we’ve got 3 on hold currently)

-idk stuff that sounds good or i impulse put on hold at the library

5 notes - Posted July 10, 2022

the phrase “horse plinko” is just so satisfying, bright and refreshing, I’m so glad I’m back on this hellsite

5 notes - Posted January 8, 2022

wait where did the Nona stuff come from what is happening please explain

6 notes - Posted March 30, 2022

Imagine someone being like “do you even know what kind of evil you face” and you’re just like “no and I will not ask you any more about it” and then getting on a train to meet a vampire like “lol might die who knows” like mr harker what are you doing

8 notes - Posted May 5, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

apparently I’ve been back on tumblr for SEVEN MONTHS NOW mostly just rebloging absolute bangers but what if I started posting every terrible thought I have here instead of on twitter

11 notes - Posted April 27, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

Nice. (First year back since grad school and I missed y’all 😍)

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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dragonlordofmiddleearth · 1 year

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I posted 1,320 times in 2022

That's 335 more posts than 2021!

20 posts created (2%)

1,300 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@clotpolemerlin

@thefollow-spot

@sneakyboymerlin

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I tagged 1,020 of my posts in 2022

Only 23% of my posts had no tags

#bbc merlin - 677 posts

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#arthur pendragon - 106 posts

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#the legend of vox machina - 43 posts

#critical role - 42 posts

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#lancelot - 36 posts

#gaius - 33 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#like if they just left me alone for a bit and stopped stressing me out im sure that debilitating anxiety would be much easier to deal with

My Top Posts in 2022:

Apparently I just get emotional anytime Pike or Keyleth are on screen now

24 notes - Posted February 11, 2022

I'm sure I've seen this on Tumblr already but I couldn't find it again for the life of me and I've been thinking about it a lot again recently so I'm reposting it again mainly for my own access

39 notes - Posted November 5, 2022

I wish the Merlin 6: kingdom come people would be more upfront about their script being fanfic and not official because I am sick and tired of seeing people bitch about the bbc "scrapping" the supposed sixth season. There was no sixth season. Merlin did not get cancelled, it just ended. Afaik the kingdom come peeps have no affiliation whatsoever with the original merlin team, other than their contacting some of them to be like "hey would you want to make our script?" and the representative being like "appreciate the offer but no thanks". The script is no more canon than any fanfic you or I might write, it just so happens that they did it in script form which seems to have confused a lot of people, and no-one seems to have corrected the massive misunderstanding for some reason

51 notes - Posted December 13, 2022

Honestly forget the rest of the contest let's just watch Mika for six more hours

54 notes - Posted May 14, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

2,440 notes - Posted December 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #I know everyone's probably over these by now #but i absolutely could not get it to work before for the life of me #the jump in notes for that Merlin trending one is so wild though #can't believe it was like the tag header for both Merlin and bbc merlin for a bit #anyways back to obscurity I go lmao

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aspiringsophrosyne · 1 year

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Episode 11: Whispers at The Ziggurat

The beginning of the end....in more ways than one.

We have soda, snacks, and popcorn with so much greasy butter you gotta wipe your hand on your jeans, and that shit never comes out.

Curtain's rising.

Why don't we find our seats?

There are a few neat little easter eggs in Delilah's chanting; they're even more noticeable with the subtitles on.

Looking back after Campaign Two, everything the Briarwoods do makes even more sense as, during the second campaign, we met quite a few of their contemporaries: wizards of privilege and power who were heavily afflicted with self-serving tunnel vision.

They're together.

They got what they wanted: they achieved their goal.

As they deserved to.

Why should they care if the rest of the world burns?

There are parallels between some of C1's and C2's villains is what I'm saying; it's neat.

The Good.

They had to dance around copywrites here, but they managed well.

Vagueries honestly serve the narrative in some ways, as it makes sense that little would be known about the Whispered One; secrets are his thing, after all.

Bad Influences

God, when the manipulative monsters of Critical Role stop playing nice by their standards, they really stop playing nice.

Orthax throwing away every pretense of subtlety is dread-inducing, but it's also strangely cathartic.

There's no more bluffing; the time has come to call.

There aren't words for how much I love that awful little moment between Cass, Sylas, and Delilah before Percy storms up.

Cass, knowing what Delilah wants, her immediate acquiescence, the older, healed bite marks on her neck...In just a few seconds, a complete, agonizing story is told.

Just Cassandra addressing Delilah as "Mother" is enough to trigger your gag reflex.

I adore how much just these couple of seconds does with so little.

This kind of subtle show-rather-than-tell storytelling rings every one of my bells.

The Fights

On multiple Q&As, the CRew has talked about how they had to find ways around doing too much work for what wouldn't have merited the price, effort, or time.

It's a sad fact that animating is difficult.

It's time-consuming.

It's expensive: especially when you've got seven characters to animate.

At once.

So they've split up the party here and there over the seasons to alleviate the burden, and frankly, even if they could do a prolonged fight with every character on screen, I'm not sure it'd be worth it. It would be easy to confuse the audience's focus. Or let the choreography become disorganized.

All that is to say, I appreciate how they broke up the Ziggurat fight.

Not only is this way more convenient for the crew, but it also gives us multiple unique dynamics between combatants.

Delilah silences Scanlan and then repeatedly tries to blast him.

The two sibling pairs square off. The twins use only their physical prowess against each other, while there's more at play than just the blows the de Rolos trade, as not one but both of them are fighting the influences that push them against each other.

Pike and Sylas do battle.

(This fight in particular was incredible, by the way. Richly dynamic; it's a joy to watch every time. Ashely couldn't be there for this fight on stream, so everyone went out of their way to show off how badass Pike is here.

Also, Cleric vs. Undead is a classic.)

Delilah and Pike have a beam fight and Scanlan plays his Uno reverse card.

Grog shakes off Sylas' charm, which is a nice nod to the campaign. (Raging Berserker Barbarians can't be charmed at that level.) Likewise, Sylas' influence fading from Vax and Cassandra as he gets more and more hurt (failing that concentration check) as Keyleth's and the Sun Tree's power builds alongside Neal Acree's beautiful score was also a nice touch.

All these fights and none of them overstay their welcome.

As I've said and will say again, titmouse makes a damn good action sequence.

(And baby de Rolos. Taliesin said in the commentary that was the nicest they ever were to each other and I believe it. Siblings.)

The woman who broke

Grey does a fantastic job here, as usual. You feel her pain and frustration. If she ever cared, she obviously does not anymore, but Delilah got hooked when she was in undeniably desperate straights. Now, this is all she has.

She broke the world for her husband: she can't turn back; she has to collect the Whispered One's debt. So the more setbacks she suffers, the more Grey lets Delilah's composure falter. Until her veneer of confidence and upper crustiness is completely burned away in that final confrontation with Vox Machina.

If nothing else, she put on one hell of a light show for Whitestone. It'll be fine, I'm sure.

The timing of Pike's fading out here is, as it was in the campaign, impeccable.

And that is the end of the Briarwoods.

For now, anyway.

The Bad. (Or at least, not so great.)

Magic:

Before Ripley makes her escape, there's more of her acting like she knows Percy when based on season one, she shouldn't.

This moment was why I pointed out the magic options available to Vox Machina in episode five; yes, Percy can't attack without alerting the Briarwoods, but Keyleth absolutely can.

All she needs is her standard: grasping vine. She doesn't even try to use that to grab Ripley?

Trying to snag Ripley and failing could've made Keyleth's big moment later even more powerful. She loses Ripley, Sylas punches her into a wall, and then she's out of a lot of the fight. Awkward, dirpy Keyleth messed up again.

So you take that and let it fuel her fire. This time she's determined not to fuck up. To put all that considerable power of hers into ending the threat to her friends.

And then she does.

It would've been cool to see.

Grog

And Grog's out of the fight again; I brought this up at the top of the season for this. It gets a little exasperating at this point. For a half-giant, the boy is strangely more prone to unconsciousness than his other, less hardy teammates.

A potentially better, funnier option would've been to have Grog awake the whole time but trying to get to the fight. Sylas and Pike were jumping around a lot. Maybe there could've been a background gag where he kept trying to run up the stairs before Delilah blasts him back down? Or Grog yelling in the background of Sylas and Pike's face-off that he'll be there soon; just a minute now, almost there. Plus, that would've been another fun nod to the campaign, where Grog's mobility was his Achilles' heal, and Matt used it multiple times to keep him out of the fight for as long as possible; so that there would be a fight.

Nitpick:

In hindsight, the "Be the light" thing is unnaturally on the nose, especially without a moment pre-episode three where Pike provides light for the team, or somebody calls her Vox Machina's light or both. Establishing that light is specifically Pike's thing before she loses that ability and passes the mantle on to Keyleth would've tied things together better and made that feel like a less contrived setup for this scene.

Writing like this will come up again in season 2, so I'm pointing it out now, even though it's not a huge deal here.

But that's about it.

This episode was fantastic, and it was hard to imagine they'd be able to top the action and emotion of episode eleven. But then they did.

That's coming up next.

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