I will never not be baffled by the take that Vax becoming a CR 21 angel of death post-Campaign 1 is a horrible, torturous form of enslavement that the Matron subjects him to because she's evil. Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence is a very old trope/concept that, in the context of death and grief, is meant to soften the blow by offering the reassurance that the people we've lost are still 'around' in some form, which is very much the vibe with Vax; when I saw that his Champion of Ravens statblock types him as a celestial instead of a humanoid, the direction my brain immediately went in was "Well, celestials are a warlock patron option, so could I use him as such if I ever play a Tal'Dorei campaign? What about Planar Ally? Could he be called to fight beside his family once again as a summon, given the right circumstances?" Flattening it down to "but he doesn't get to rest!" is missing the point by a country mile.

He was looking to religion before it happened because he was looking for a purpose and the only reason he became her champion (long term)is because vox machina fucked up and let him get disintegrated (its cr3 and the cast is still really bad about leaving party members unconcious and dying for a whole round, even when the team has a healer cleric and healer druid)

There sre many other characters out there where if they decided not to Come back for religious reasons people would respect it..hell the cast hasnt even talked about the idea of bringing fcg back.

So yea as Agatha from thr mcu would say "sometimes boys die". He died. Permanently do to a demi god which he chose to face. It happens. The matron let him continue to protect his friends till it was over. Its sad but thats life (and death)

Agatha *5 mins after Billy tried to kill her*: Credit where credit is due that was a total slay. Never let anyone tell you murder is wrong, Kid. Now come with auntie Agnes, we’re getting Toby back.

BILLY MAXIMOFF | AGATHA ALL ALONG ↪ clues

BONUS:

both of these posts were literally right next to each other... you can't make this shit up

It is weird that u can see a good innocent trans person being happy and then u see bigots calling queer people perverts without a bullet wound in their head

So I did some digging into the tenants of all the Primes, and only 3 of them solidly mention some version of helping the weak or downtrodden, etc. And 1 is like, almost it. But that's only 4 out of 12 Prime deities. That's not a lot.

So it bothers me when people justify certain characters' actions/beliefs/whatever by saying something like:

"Oh, well they grew up on all these stories about the gods helping the downtrodden but when they begged for help, no gods answered!"

And I'm not even just speaking of Ashton; honestly, quite a few of the Hells have made this argument. But like...I think it's a case of players (and the audience) applying real-world theology and religious culture to fictional gods, because.

Let me tell you, the Wildmother isn't seeking out poor souls to aid. Nor is the Arch Heart, the Moon Weaver, the Stormlord - so many of them! So I don't know where all these alleged tales of the gods of Exandria taking pity on the weak came from.

It's been posted a few times now, but it's a point worth repeating. The *majority* of the holy people we've met throughout the years in Exandria weren't some special chosen folks, pulled from the sewers or whatever.

(I'm emphasizing majority, here, not saying all).

They were people who actively and consistently chose to pursue the service of their god. Like it takes dedication. Because the gods are behind a gate and can't just pluck whoever they want out of despair.

I don't know. Ashton's willingness, to chase the gods away just because *they* weren't a special chosen child of a god just seems a little petulant.

I think jaffe has made it clear several times that ashton is broken and doesnt know how to deal with it. Just like how they thought the answer was to not care...and then it was to be a hero...and now its to destroy the gods. Like jaffe is obsessed with roleplaying broken people with weird world views.

From what i understand exandria and most dnd is based on polythiestic cultures in which the gods are the creators , not the moral center. U pray to the storm god for calm winds, to the harvest god for good crops. No one is being firced to go to church and lectured on how the gods should be worshipped. temples exitheand they address anyone who comes to seek them.

And yes its very weird even years later everyone projects their christian drama onto the situation. The gods canonically do not exist on the planet, havent for1k years because THEY felt their prescense was bad and really only reach out to mortals that ask for it.

Brennan Lee Mulligan, Matthew Mercer, Aabria Iyengar

the weavers of tales of Exandria

Martian Venture skin concept for all you spacerocks enjoyers

Tails inspired Venture skin

Me - 5

Blizzard - 0

Shoutout to everyone’s favorite werewolf carpenter!!

Middle-aged white dudes, take note.

One thing I find interesting is that the villains of Campaign 3 and the people that agree with them see the gods as these oppressive figures that sit on a throne above everyone else and rule over them as tyrants.

But the thing is that the gods aren't ruling things. They sequestered themselves behind the Divine Gate and now only intervene when asked for aid by believers or when directly threatened by jackasses pointing guns at them. Several of the gods have become more active and militant during C3, but what we're seeing are reactions to the threat being leveled at them.

The throne that those opposed to the gods speak of is vacant. They abdicated it and left their children largely to their own devices, but that's not enough for some people. And if they leave or die, that vacant throne isn't going to stay vacant. Whether Ludinus wants it for himself or not, plenty of his subordinates do. So do a fuckton of nasty things that are more powerful than mortal wizards and less powerful than the gods.

The choice isn't between "Yes Tyrannical Gods or No Tyrannical Gods", it's a choice between "Mostly-Absentee Gods or World Ruled By Grand Demons/Unseelie/Archdevils/Elder Evils."

(I also think comparing the presence of the gods to a feudalistic power structure is a clever trick to get people to view their existence as an injustice, when really a more apt comparison is a food chain. They're part of the natural state of Exandria as it has come to be, and removing them from it will cause a trophic cascade as the things they kept in check, like the fiends and fey and Tharizdun, will go out of control and ruin things for everyone else. You don't kill an orca because its existence is unfair to seals.)

Yep its pretty much "the gods are gone and the world belongs to us with a few ppl having magic no more impressive than what wizards can do but some senile old elf who eats people has tricked a punch if suckers into blaming beings that arent even on this plane instead of the power structure that actually hurt them.

worst tv marathon ever

'Caravans coming' redux.

Republicans have the lamest nativist bullshit. Eating your pet animals is straight out of Nazi playbook.

Orym and the Ticking Time Bombs

this is not a character criticism but ashton saying "i had a bad life and yet managed to not burn down an orphanage, so that makes me superior to the gods" is patently insane. babygirl what are you TALKING about!! are u comparing the city headed by fascist god-killer mages to an ORPHANAGE? at this point im begging someone to turn to ashton and say "do you even understand what you're saying? or are you just angry?"

The city had probably 2 orphanages