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Oct. 19th, 2024 02:36 pmFor the past month, I have spent a large amount of time consuming three pieces of Critical Role-related media. And right now, I have mixed feelings on all three.
The moment last week when two bands of adventurers came together, and the entirety of this week's episode? Felt very much like the payoff of years of invested storytelling that it was. The seven people who suddenly had to be playing two people all rose to the occasion with aplomb, giving us all the interaction we would want from such a meeting, with the two remaining people at the table happily keeping up alongside them. That one's going to be a fan favorite, no doubt about it. But I have been getting more and more wary about how likely Bells Hells are to be idiots at the end of this, because I'm sorry, but the fact remains that releasing Predathos is an act of idiocy at best, and an act of arrogance at worst.
Were I to watch the new season The Legend of Vox Machina having never seen the original source material, I think I would unequivocally love it. Even the over the top moments like the end of episode seven are great when you watch with the right mindset. But I don't feel like I'm watching the adaptation of the original story we've all been waiting a year and a half for. I feel like I've had this season sold to me as something it's really not, and that's a problem. ( And that's when... )
I've also been listening to the audiobook of What Doesn't Break, and I'm currently in the middle of chapter 9. I'd be further, if the story wasn't often hard to get through; a large part of what's getting me through it is the knowledge that it's going to end with her meeting Imogen. And in that aspect of the novel Cassandra Khaw is proving a skilled author who's getting it right, aided in the audio version by a virtuoso performance from Marisha. But she is also turning Exandria into the kind of world you'd expect to see in some old fantasy paperback where women are hated and downtrodden the way they kind of haven't been at all in the rest of canon. In fact, it very much feels like she wanted to write a story about a lesbian (Laudna's in fact being bi is outright erased) in a hostile world, even when said world has also been shown to be way more queer-friendly than ours. It's to the point that I'm afraid I must hope we don't see any of Marquet besides the Taloned Highlands, because I would not trust this author with any non-Western coded society.
I suppose any or all of three of these things could soon end better than I'm currently anticipated. But I don't know.
The moment last week when two bands of adventurers came together, and the entirety of this week's episode? Felt very much like the payoff of years of invested storytelling that it was. The seven people who suddenly had to be playing two people all rose to the occasion with aplomb, giving us all the interaction we would want from such a meeting, with the two remaining people at the table happily keeping up alongside them. That one's going to be a fan favorite, no doubt about it. But I have been getting more and more wary about how likely Bells Hells are to be idiots at the end of this, because I'm sorry, but the fact remains that releasing Predathos is an act of idiocy at best, and an act of arrogance at worst.
Were I to watch the new season The Legend of Vox Machina having never seen the original source material, I think I would unequivocally love it. Even the over the top moments like the end of episode seven are great when you watch with the right mindset. But I don't feel like I'm watching the adaptation of the original story we've all been waiting a year and a half for. I feel like I've had this season sold to me as something it's really not, and that's a problem. ( And that's when... )
I've also been listening to the audiobook of What Doesn't Break, and I'm currently in the middle of chapter 9. I'd be further, if the story wasn't often hard to get through; a large part of what's getting me through it is the knowledge that it's going to end with her meeting Imogen. And in that aspect of the novel Cassandra Khaw is proving a skilled author who's getting it right, aided in the audio version by a virtuoso performance from Marisha. But she is also turning Exandria into the kind of world you'd expect to see in some old fantasy paperback where women are hated and downtrodden the way they kind of haven't been at all in the rest of canon. In fact, it very much feels like she wanted to write a story about a lesbian (Laudna's in fact being bi is outright erased) in a hostile world, even when said world has also been shown to be way more queer-friendly than ours. It's to the point that I'm afraid I must hope we don't see any of Marquet besides the Taloned Highlands, because I would not trust this author with any non-Western coded society.
I suppose any or all of three of these things could soon end better than I'm currently anticipated. But I don't know.
