Critical Role Campaign 2 finale

[owlmoose]

Wow, I haven't written about this show in awhile, have I? Anyway, I finished the marathon wrap-up episode today and have a few thoughts.

A few weeks ago, when Matt said something about Cognouza being the final arc, it took me a bit by surprise -- there are a lot of thematic reasons why Lucien might be the final boss, but an awful lot of plot threads were still dangling. So when I heard that the actual last episode would be seven and a half hours long, I figured we'd be wrapping some of those up, and it was not really a surprise when Trent Ikithon showed up at the Clay's front door. Fortunately, thanks to Beau and Veth's quick thinking and clever use of magical items, he was dispatched pretty easily -- I'm pretty sure they still would have beat him, but it would have been long and bloody, and I suspect Matt would have been forced into one more episode. More satisfying this way too, with Trent taken alive and Astrid and Eadwulf turning on him.

So Ikithon has fallen from grace, it seems that the rest of the Cerberus Assembly may follow, and the Nein no longer have a price on their heads, which is a decent way to leave things. The main plotline left wide open is Uk'atoa, which would seem to be prime fodder for a future campaign, along with these Betrayer Gods cults that we haven't talked about in rather awhile. I'm content to let all the other mysteries remain mysterious, at least for now.

Although I quickly became quite fond of Cadeucus, I enjoyed how Molly came back, even if he's not quite Molly anymore. I love the idea of Kingsley Tealeaf, pirate, and I think his adventures in The Revelry would be a fine premise for a one-shot or a short-term campaign.

So, what's next? I suspect the cast may not even know. I seem to recall that they've said they won't make any announcements about Campaign 3 for awhile, so I hope that means they're going to take a real break (unlike the hiatus imposed by the early days of the pandemic, which wasn't an actual break for anyone). That said, I'm really curious about the State of the Role that's coming next week and can't wait to hear what they're going to spring on us.