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Finished TAZ: Balance
So I kind of blew through the rest of TAZ, including all the freely available live shows except the one that posted today (but not the two Flophouse episodes). I am probably not sucked in enough to shell out the five bucks a month to get at the bonus content -- paying for one D&D show seems to be my limit -- but who knows. From Crystal Kingdom right through the end, the story and characters grabbed me in their teeth and refused to let me go, and I found it one of my more satisfying listening experiences in awhile.
I have a lot to say, but most all of it is spoilers. I am VERY glad that I was not at all spoiled for the main story arc, because watching it all unfold for the players as well as myself was a huge aspect of my enjoyment. So putting a spoiler cut here.
I mentioned in my first post that I noticed a level-up in storytelling during the Crystal Kingdom mini-arc, so it doesn't surprise me that, according to Griffin, he solidified his plans for who the Red Robes were around that time. Because the secret of the Red Robes is, for me, what really made the experience. It was clear fairly early on that Lucretia wasn't telling the full story in terms of who the Red Robes were and what they wanted, and I started wondering around the second or third arc whether Lucretia had been a Red Robe herself, but the reveal that Magnus was a Red Robe blindsided me. By then I was pretty invested. Not long after came The Stolen Century, and that was it: I was so, so hooked on this found family and their desperate journey, to the point that this podcast did something that almost no media ever does, especially not my first time through: it brought me to tears. Lupe's speech about not becoming something terrible, and Davenport forgetting himself, and a few other moments got me teary and/or choked up, but more than anything I found myself openly weeping over Magnus and the freaking voidfish at the end of their Stolen Century episode. Who knew that my seperation and reunion thing would extend to a man and his cosmic jellyfish?
It should probably not surprise anyone that Magnus is hands-down my favorite character -- protection fighter with a snarky side, a heart of gold, and a tragic romance in his backstory, hello -- but I also grew fond of Lucretia, Angus (who doesn't love Angus?), Carey, and Johan. I find Lucretia particularly interesting as a tragic figure, someone who did what she thought was the right thing at enormous cost to herself, and with nearly terrible consequences. Lup was pretty awesome, too, though I wish we'd had her for longer. Taako and Merle are also great characters, but I never came to love them quite as much as I do Magnus. But I did appreciate how all the players took the opportunity of the lost century to show us how the characters became the people they are today, especially Taako and how he built up that his disinterested, self-centered facade. The question of who you are when you lose your memory is a pretty interesting one, and I like the spin this story took.
The final battle was pretty amazing. The denouement lasted a little long, I think, although perhaps it was more satisfying for people who had been listening along. In particular, the Magnus/Julia reunion (which I had obviously been anticipating) fell a bit flat for me -- I wish they had addressed the fact that Magnus never knew his true history while she was alive, and I had hoped there would be something interesting there. (There may be a fic itching to be written along those lines.) But overall it was a satisfying end to an ambitious story, and I am happy to have tried it out.
It'll be interesting to see how things change when they start playing their new games next month. I expect that I'll enjoy whatever the Critical Role gang gets up to next, in large part because I've already seen them do other things with their various one-shots, so I feel confident that my attachment is as much to the players (and especially the DM) as to the specific team of Vox Machina. I haven't gotten the opportunity to know the McElroys quite as well yet, so I'm not sure whether the changes will take with me, especially if someone else is GMing. But I'll certainly stick with it, at least for now. I look forward to discovering what direction the boys go.
I have a lot to say, but most all of it is spoilers. I am VERY glad that I was not at all spoiled for the main story arc, because watching it all unfold for the players as well as myself was a huge aspect of my enjoyment. So putting a spoiler cut here.
I mentioned in my first post that I noticed a level-up in storytelling during the Crystal Kingdom mini-arc, so it doesn't surprise me that, according to Griffin, he solidified his plans for who the Red Robes were around that time. Because the secret of the Red Robes is, for me, what really made the experience. It was clear fairly early on that Lucretia wasn't telling the full story in terms of who the Red Robes were and what they wanted, and I started wondering around the second or third arc whether Lucretia had been a Red Robe herself, but the reveal that Magnus was a Red Robe blindsided me. By then I was pretty invested. Not long after came The Stolen Century, and that was it: I was so, so hooked on this found family and their desperate journey, to the point that this podcast did something that almost no media ever does, especially not my first time through: it brought me to tears. Lupe's speech about not becoming something terrible, and Davenport forgetting himself, and a few other moments got me teary and/or choked up, but more than anything I found myself openly weeping over Magnus and the freaking voidfish at the end of their Stolen Century episode. Who knew that my seperation and reunion thing would extend to a man and his cosmic jellyfish?
It should probably not surprise anyone that Magnus is hands-down my favorite character -- protection fighter with a snarky side, a heart of gold, and a tragic romance in his backstory, hello -- but I also grew fond of Lucretia, Angus (who doesn't love Angus?), Carey, and Johan. I find Lucretia particularly interesting as a tragic figure, someone who did what she thought was the right thing at enormous cost to herself, and with nearly terrible consequences. Lup was pretty awesome, too, though I wish we'd had her for longer. Taako and Merle are also great characters, but I never came to love them quite as much as I do Magnus. But I did appreciate how all the players took the opportunity of the lost century to show us how the characters became the people they are today, especially Taako and how he built up that his disinterested, self-centered facade. The question of who you are when you lose your memory is a pretty interesting one, and I like the spin this story took.
The final battle was pretty amazing. The denouement lasted a little long, I think, although perhaps it was more satisfying for people who had been listening along. In particular, the Magnus/Julia reunion (which I had obviously been anticipating) fell a bit flat for me -- I wish they had addressed the fact that Magnus never knew his true history while she was alive, and I had hoped there would be something interesting there. (There may be a fic itching to be written along those lines.) But overall it was a satisfying end to an ambitious story, and I am happy to have tried it out.
It'll be interesting to see how things change when they start playing their new games next month. I expect that I'll enjoy whatever the Critical Role gang gets up to next, in large part because I've already seen them do other things with their various one-shots, so I feel confident that my attachment is as much to the players (and especially the DM) as to the specific team of Vox Machina. I haven't gotten the opportunity to know the McElroys quite as well yet, so I'm not sure whether the changes will take with me, especially if someone else is GMing. But I'll certainly stick with it, at least for now. I look forward to discovering what direction the boys go.