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Monday Media Musings - 6/20/22
Exandria Unlimited: Calamity: A beautifully tragic tale, well-told. This Critical Role four-episode miniseries explores one of the incidents that kicked of The Calamity, a centuries-long war between gods that helps define the history of the game's setting. As a prequel, you know to a certain extent how it has to end, but that took nothing away from the journey of getting there. I wasn't at all familiar with Brennan Lee Mulligan before this, but I was very impressed by the emotionality of his storytelling and what felt like an instant rapport built at the table (though I heard a couple of mentions of a session zero, so of course it couldn't have been). I also fell totally in love with Lou and Luis, both in terms of their characters and as players, and of course Aabria is always brilliant. Sam and Aabria as sniping exes was everything I never knew I needed. As I said before, we knew going in that this would be a tragedy, and there were many heart- and gut-wrenching moments, but the one that got to me the most? In the second round of the final battle, when Aabria rolled that mediocre Arcana check, and Brennan gave Laerryn a choice: either she could guarantee that the Primals would not be released into Exandra, or she could give Avalier a chance to survive the energy blast. My immediate thought was this choice was really no choice at all -- the plan has to work, the city is being evacuated, even if it weren't, the sacrifice of one city is a fair trade for the salvation of Exandria. But still, when Laerryn said so calmly and clearly that Exandria's survival was paramount, and ended the speech by saying "fuck Avalier," tears sprang to my eyes. Of relief, of mingled happiness and sadness that Laerryn showed so much growth in such short time, of joy for Exandria and mourning for Avalier, a city I've only known for a few hours? I can't really say, but that was the moment.
For obvious reasons, there can never be a straight-up sequel to this story, but I'd love to see them get these players together again, somehow. And who knows -- maybe it's already in the works.
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