@fangirling-phoenix / fangirling-phoenix.tumblr.com
The parallels. THE PARALLELS.
What cannot be seen is not gone forever.
When the only thing you remember from the very dramatic and grandiose 3 episodes of Downfall is this - Pelor's Executioner!
Thank you brainrot for your service XD
BTW : The executioner is indeed the name of the zapper.
Brennan: Every person that I'm peeling off the board is one of the most brilliant mortals to have ever lived.
Nick: I was way more psyched when I started this action than I am now.
Watching Nick in combat is easily the most fun I've ever had watching combat in an actual play. He is such a skillful and conscientious player, and I am hooked.
Supporting not only the other players but also making life easier for the DM as well, in the midst of a very complex and mechanics heavy battle. Empowering other players to make big and meaningful and difficult choices, while using his knowledge of the mechanics to protect them. Making incredibly unselfish combat choices that put his character at real risk of death, and still making those choices unflinchingly. And he does it in a way that never comes across as condescension or dominating time at the table.
We're gifted in that we often get to watch really amazing actors and roleplayers at this table. And he is one of them. But man what an incredible player he is.
-Critical Role Campaign 3, Episode 101, "Downfall Part Three"
asmodeus spitting that "i will ALWAYS hate you", pelor just thundering "do not lie to me" and assuming his true form, asmodeus's presence dissipating. just shot after shot without missing
Asmodeus putting on a show as a "priest of the Dawnfather":
The Dawnfather, right next to him:
if i keep seeing so many people refer to ayden as an indication of an unknown softness in pelor i will start setting things on fire. just because YOU cannot handle nuance does not mean the story of exandria has not contained it and done so consistently. in fact the first in depth interaction that any party had with pelor (vex becoming his champion) was a portrayal of him that was explicit in his complexity. taken straight from the transcript for 1x104 elysium, “[vex you] spin and look, whereas there once was a burning star-- and to the rest of [vox machina], you see the painful, endless light that averts your gaze-- it doesn't hurt your eyes as much, and you can see the faint features, the soft cheeks, the hairless head, and the bright warm eyes of he who brings the dawn. And you can see the smile there, behind the light. “there is hope.”” sunlight can warm you and burn you in equal measure.
that burning image of the sun has much in common with a teenage boy who steps into a dark room, and reminds the dm that it’s not dark. the same way that a teenage boy who stands by as a woman who will not give up her worship of pelor is punished because he has more important responsibilities he must honour has much in common with a seemingly benevolent lord of the dawn might respond harshly to a cleric who asks if he is worth saving while he is trying to find a way to survive so he might keep helping to provide light. the gods aren’t simple and they never have been. i am as psyched about the particular angle that downfall is taking as anybody but it is already frustrating watching people act like the gods are suddenly more nuanced because they’re in literally mortal bodies when the entire Point of the gods in exandria in the various stories we’ve seen so far is that the only difference they have with mortals is the bounds of their power. they carry all the same flaws and the same profundity. just because so much of the fandom has reduced that to black and white flatness or faulty mapping onto real world religions (or the various traumas those might have caused individuals) doesn’t mean that complexity has been missing at all from the story.
luc brenatto getting upstaged as cr's most insane teen adventurer by a quadruple classed 15-year-old with 255 hp
