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I love how the noncritters are getting random things or upset at things that will happen in season 2, 3, 4 and dont even know it yet. Theyre getting upset at their own imagination going somewhere not knowing the path has already paved out.
Pike's necklace is called a Holy Symbol. It's basically the equivalent of wearing a cross, but for the Everlight. She channels her divine magic (healing, the shield, etc) through it
They hint at and tease Vax and Vex's background. But we've had hints of the twins' relationship and why Vex might be a little stand-offish with "Kiki." The twin half-elves have always been them vs. the world. They could only rely on each other - and would. That's how they've survived. Some hints at that relationship... In the very first episode when Keyleth is wondering why they are in each other's company... she groups Vax and Vex together, noting that they only think about themselves (and they reply in unison). As they head out to confront "the beast," Vax and Vex discuss Vex's sensations among themselves. They don't trust the rest of the party to share suspicions. And when the party is under house arrest, the twins note that they could probably manage to sneak out where the entire party have failed (though they opt not to). Now someone who is... well... unproven... is starting to slip in with the pair (think back when the twins were beaming at each other when realizing they have a home). Vex is not entirely unjustified showing concern that it might be a dangerous dynamic shift.
Sam Riegel is a treasure. Also an EP, casting director, AND screenwriter for this (along with Travis). This is what happens when you let people with a deep understanding and passion for the source material get put in positions of authority on a production. What a novel concept!
10:20 Man, you're not wrong. Druids start slow but by higher levels, you're looking at everything from thousand-year lifespans to changing into dragons or demons or other powerful shit, to switching off a hurricane if it's in their way, to the Awakening spell, where you give a plant or animal human-level intelligence basically forever. One of the strongest NPCs in the Eberron setting is an intelligent giant redwood that exists because of that shit. It's a druid itself, and other druids live in it. Crazy.
Dragons? Yes, Demons? hell no, they're all about the power of nature. Elementals and some mythical beasts can be fair game thou depending on the type of druid (not all get dragonshapes for example). But yeah, they get spells, wilderness skills (which can let them actually commune with/influence animals and potentially draft some reinforcements in the right circumstances... or avoid a fight with a pack or wild beast entirely in a pinch), animal companion (unlike ones recruited by animal handling and offerings of treats etc, a bonded companion grows in strength and ability with the druid and who doesnt want an epic T-Rex for a pet?), shapeshifting (such utility, need to fight? turn into a bear. Need to shift heavy weights? Turn into a bear. Need to track something? Turn into a bear. Need to sneak around? Turn into a tiny bear... There's a shape/bear for all occasions!). It's an impressive kit of versatile class features. Of course wizards, sorcerers and clerics tend to win in terms of sheer BS they can pull with the power of magic, anime and god on their side respectively but druids, if your games arent focused heavily on city and urban adventures, tend to be awesome.
@@accywacky2699 Keyleth literally got Shapechange late in the campaign, and turned into a goristro (and I think a beholder and a dragon) to test it. Hell of a spell, lets you become any creature with a challenge rating equal or lower than your own level.
D&D adventuring parties have more hit points than "regular" people (farmers, merchants, innocent bystanders, even some soldiers) because they have learned to withstand damage because of their experience (in the first campaign, Matt did use XP rather than milestones) in combat.
Also, those where either wraiths or shadows, their touch drains something from the living. Either direct life energy for wraiths, in game terms, they drain levels by inflicting 'negative levels' on the victim, each negative level gives a stacking -1 penalty to various rolls and if your negative levels ever equal your total character levels? Dead. Plus dying this way typically ensures your body/spirit revives as an undead too though that typically takes a day or more rather than be some instant zombie apocalypse effect. For shadows they drain attribute points... either strength or constitution. Run low on strength? You cant move or do much of anything unless its purely mental plus at 0 you pass out. Run low constitution? It reduces your hit points and most notably makes it harder for you to pass fortitude saves... which are the thing you use to block being drained so it gets easier and easier for them to drain you.. And at 0 you just die. As with wraiths, dying to a shadow will cause your spirit to turn into an undead shadow after a certain length of time. As higher level adventurers, the vox crew both have strong ability scores and levels so they dont die instantly. Plus those levels and having a hardy constitution will help them pass the fortitude saves to resist being drained when touched. This is probably why Kiki got so messed up because, well, she's an elf and elves tend to have less constitution due to being all slender and frail-ish (they can get buff, but a buff elf is still not going to be quite as beefy as a buff human or orc could).
At 20:22, 'These niggas got sacrificed for a meme, bro' had me rolling! Others have said it and I'll repeat it. The rest of the season just gets better and better. Looking forward to your reactions and thoughts.
Just to put this out, comparing the “It’s us” moment between here and the tabletop campaign, the CritRole campaign had such eerieness as you hear the details of each Vox Machina look alike hanging from the tree as you see Keyleth’s VA come to the realization by her face. Never mind Mercer giving such vivid details as you realize he came up with this damn scenario. It’s just ten flavors of awesome.
Vex’s being like this because it’s the first time her brother’s attention has been diverted. You need to remember, they were taken by their father from their mother at a young age to Syngorn (the elven capital) & fled it years later, only to find their mother had died to a dragon attack - they’ve only ever had each other for years. Vex has an air of maturity because of what she’s been through, but deep down Vex & Vax are troubled people who’ve only ever lent on each other & Vax’s attention being diverted to Keyleth is a threat - in Vex’s mind - to her pillar of support. It’s easy to miss because they’ve only had a small conversation about the dragon attack & about Syngorn, but it puts into perspective how much they rely on each other’s presence & attention.
12:00 Unfortunately, that was just a normal arrow. Since the wolf-thing is some sort of undead, a single arrow would barely even inconvenience it. It would have just been a waste of an arrow if she had fired.
No, she grabbed a lot of them, (but I don't know if they lost any with the falling bag, and not sure if all were fire arrows or some other types also).
@@sqxbarto9229 Yeah the magical arrows weren't on her person, Vex was probably trying to save them for the Briarwoods and didn't want them to get mixed up with her normal arrows.
I think the problem was the distance, but I can be wrong. A fire enchanted arrow maybe could kill it permanently, a normal arrow, wouldn't. (but I think she had more fire arrows, she will use one later)
for me it was the sheer pettiness of the issue. They could have strung up a sign saying welcome vox machina, they murdered 8 innocent peasants who had nothing to do with anything just to fuck with them and show off how evil they are
The reason the hanged people as a warning feel so evil is that it's pointless, If they were at least sacrificed or consumed, something would be sated or accomplished. It shows that Delilah and Silas will kill helpless or innocent people for absolutely no reason.
The Sun Tree moment is an ICONIC moment from Critical Role. The cast has said since, "Yeah, that was the moment when we realized Matt was not fucking around and these Briarwood people were DANGEROUS". In the OG stream the Briarwoods had hinted and killed a bear as well and hung it on the tree for Trinket(Vex's Bear) too.
8:45 _Bandersnatch_ wolf-like demon of Norse mythology often referred to as a cross between dog, bear and leopard, with a long tail and multiple rows of sharp teeth. 15:25 _Rakshasa_ technically not one, but let's call it "were-tiger" of the Hindi mythology. there's an actual encounter with one in C1 during the Slayer's Take arc, but this bit is totally unrelated.
I'm super excited to see you all get to experience the Whitestone arc! It has got to be the best story arc the cast could have chosen to really spotlight the highs and lows of their game. Your reactions to the tree scene were everything I could have wanted! As a note, in the campaign, viewers didn't know the victims had dinner first; how the people were chosen was off screen until this show. Now I wonder, perhaps the Briarwoods recreated the dinner from episode 3 as some messed up need to rewrite how the first one ended?
This is the best introduction arc for people that are unaware of what DnD can be. The chromatic conclave is going to break these new people with the lows that arc reaches. "Fix him" is going to be epic.
@@andrewwebb3248 many critters are eager to see that intense moment on the big screen. I'm not sure how long we might have to wait; the second arc is so intricate that it feels impossible to contain into a single season! Maybe we should urge them to make an animated trilogy of movies with massive extended scenes, LotR-style? Personally, even more than "Fix Him!" I have the intense desire to see "...is that my girl?" And listen to reactors lose their collective shit.
That scene with the tree...oh man watching it slowly dawn on the players that it was a warning to/about them was delightful in a dark way. Matt's a master of describing that dark side of things.
I didn't know this until watching these streams and other people have said that animating animals is the worse thing you can try to do. Makes sense in this light then to get rid of the horses and not bring Trinket along who was in the campaign.
In terms of D&D mechanics, Vox Machina has way more HP than the red-shirted guards. They don't waste a second of this show! Lots of "blink and you'll miss it!" moments. All of the "strangest creature" moments happened in the campaign, except Scanlon's. That "tiger-man" is a Rakshasa -- a conniving devil with backwards hands. No spoilers, but if we go by the campaign, it's not the last time we see him. That wasn't an accident...Keyleth meant to push that dwarf into the lava! When that moment at the end of this episode happened in the campaign, that was one of a few times when the cast asked Matt, "Dude, what the fuck is *wrong* with you?"
Scanlan (actually Sam the player) asks, "Is the one dressed as me handsome?" And the DM Matt says it's a human child and Sam goes "Oh.". That hit hard.
I don't remember who but one of the cast even says stop and you can see/hear Matt pause and force himself to keep describing the horror to keep the story moving.
the bodies in the sun tree hit harder in the original show because you had to sit there and watch all of them realize what happened going around the table. it was extra fucked cause thats when EVERYTHING changed in the entire campaign.
If you guys get the chance, you should check out the moment they saw the hanging bodies in the actual campaign. There are "origin" videos that show the contrast. Matt is one hell of a storyteller.
What’s messed up too is in the original campaign, Trinket the bear helped them fight at the dinner party so when they saw the the bodies on the sun tree they killed a bear and put it in armor as well. :(
😅😅😅 like. We are hype over the subtle set up with the Necklace. It’s not about what’s more gruesome for us. We are basically hype over how good the writing was and started with a simple “gift” and that gift was actually a curse.
Here is a list of everyone's classes if you're interested. It will give you an idea of what might be possible for each of these characters without telling you exactly what they can do. I say this in case you like theorycrafting between seasons. Keyleth = Druid Pike = Cleric Grog = Barbarian Scanlan = Bard Vax = Rogue Vex = Ranger Percy = Fighter
Craziest shit about this show was the fundraiser. Critical role crew asked for $100,000 for a few animated shorts over a 45 day campaign. Furthest stretch goal was $1 mil for a short series. Their fans raised 3 mil in 24 hours and 11 mil over the 45 days. Broke all kinds of records
The original goal was $750,000 and the furthest stretch goal was 3mil, and they hit that after a few hours, by the end of the first day it was over 3.5mil.
I was showing Critical Role to a friend of mine and I recommended he specifically watch the episodes with the Briarwood arc. He was skeptical of them at first.....and then he got to the episode that ended with Matt Mercer describing what VM were seeing when they first got into Whitestone, and that episode ended witht he description of the Sun Tree and those people hanging from it. Before he was like "Com on, how serious could the Briarwoods be as villains they havent really done anything all that evil yet.....oh, crap.....holy......yep, they really just be lynching peasants from the Sun Tree in the middle of town and dressing em up like our heroes? That's savage AF!!!" Kinda proud of myself. I made a non-fan a Critter over the course of a few days!
in a world where people have a direct line to G(g)od(s), and they talk back. (since it's dnd) Putting a symbol on someone then murdering them, as a message for your enemies. Sure that God would take it personally.
You want to know the really scary thing? You know all those horrible things that happened in the campaign, and thus the show? ALL of that was thought up by Matt Mercer, the DM. Now from everything I've ever heard about and seen of him, he's actually one of the nicest people you could ever meet. But I don't think anyone would ever want to see him legitimately pissed off and planning out revenge or something like that. tl;dr Making a very good DM very mad is probably a very bad idea.
In dnd typically a npc guard only has around 10 health, compared to the player characters (vox machina) who are all leveled characters at around 8-10th level, and that puts their health anywhere between 60-100 health, so it's not plot armor or anything like that it's just the team is waaaaay beefier than those regular guards. The wraiths steal life when they are in contact with who they are attacking and them guards only having 10 health makes it look like they are dying immediately while vox machina can tank a few hits from the wraiths. Edit: also Vex didn't shoot bc she didn't have any magic arrows, her regular arrows weren't doing any damage (they showed it happening during the chase, right b4 she shot the magic arrow) it would have just been a waste of an arrow. The end of this episode happened just like this in the stream as well, the tree was found, the ppl hanging were discovered, and then the descriptions of what these ppl looked like, then the players slowly realizing that they were effigies of themselves, and Marisha (keyleth) saying "that's us..."
Vex is jealous of Keyleth. She and her brother spent their whole lives together, relying only on each other, so she's scared of anyone "taking him away" from her. And yeah, the Briarwoods are evil as ffuuuccckk.
The tree scene is where the original stream went from a fun table to a master class in storytelling and execution. The table reacted to the scene being played out the same way you three did with shock and horror.
Blessed Algorithm. I run a game store and I sell Dungeons and Dragons. All these years I haven't watched critical role. I tried, but watching role play never caught me. I'm hoping they animate the rest of the stories. It's nice to know what my customers are talking about. Enjoy the rest of the series. Does not disappoint.
They even joked about the family being basically cosplayers in one of their watch parties...! (including whether people would cosplay that 'version' of them)
you should've seen how everyone reacted when they first saw/heard how this happened in game. but don't, finish this season first before watching the Briarwood Arc
Oh they did get a last meal. A good one. Surf and Terf. Stuff they probably never tasted before. Then took them and tortured them and hung them. Don't even think they fed on the people.
Speaking on the noting of Vox Machina's durability in the pre-discussion: In D&D, at least in all the campaigns I've DMed or played in, once you're level 8 and above you're literally the stuff legends are made of. You and your party can perform feats that no one else can accomplish, everyone in the group individually is a warrior that a kingdom would be proud to call their champion and Emon now has an entire party of them. That's why high level parties, levels 15-20, are normally seen as "godkillers." Because they can contend with gods and other ancient beings that are similar in power to gods, it's an epic escalation.
So, in regards to the guards being weaker than our intrepid heroes in episode 4 (and the guard captain, for that matter)… Let's go a little meta. The average guard has 10 hitpoints. They're slightly better trained militia-people. A guard captain can probably be compared to a bandit captain, so let's go with an average of 65 hitpoints. Our heroes are at this point at around level 9-ish, so they should stand somewhere around 100-150 hit points. Mercenary work toughens you up right quick, and they've been at it for some time. Not necessarily successfully, mind you, but definitely for some time. They were facing either specters or their larger siblings, wraiths. A specters „life drain“ attack averages 10 necrotic damage. Just enough to body the average guard in a single blow, but neither the party nor the captain go down *that* easily. A wraith can life drain for an average of 21 damage, which all but guarantees a guard dies in one hit. Although specters and wraiths share almost all traits and abilities, wraiths can do something their little siblings can't: Create more specters. As this has not happened or at least wasn't shown, I assume the assailants were specters, not wraiths. So yeah, Vox Machina are capable and able to withstand attacks others would've (and have) succumbed to - for reference, see also Grogs grievous wound after the first dragon encounter in episode 1.
God I still remember how hard Grog was to drop by the end of the Campaign. I think he had over 300 HP by the end of it all. He was just a giant truckload of health on legs.
@@YaBoyRockLee loved your reactions btw, you’re all very into the show and it makes me happy that even new people can love this show as much as a Critical Role vet did :)
Here's a fan theory about Critical Role Campaign 3, The Girl with the Black Hair who was hanging from the Tree at the End, might be Marisha's (Keyleath), Character Laudna. I can't say more with out given away major spoilers but this is not confirmed as of writing this 27.2.22.
@@richardsuplee8137 It's PRETTY clear she was the corpse representing Vex in whitestone that then came back to life. Watch that bit again, and then look at her character design.
Its a fun theory. But without saying spoilers from the show the time line the season presents and the back story Marisha has disclosed in campaign 3 so far basically rule out her being a suntree body. She was dead before Vox Machina get there and thats honestly really cool enough.
i am not a sibling but even i can see that a twin would not want to be left alone when they lived together their whole life and i can tell the twins have a goal they need to do so for one to go off on their own even for love is a sort of betrayal
6:23 you didnt expect that? i saw it from episode 1 hell i had the couples all planned out from ep 2 poor drax or whatever that gigants name is he gets left out
Fun fact: Grog's player/actor is generally opposed to romance subplots for his characters, so Grog not ending up with someone was 100% his desire. He tried to repeat that in Campaign 2, but his real-life wife Laura Bailey (who plays Vex in this show) made it her mission to romance his character whether he liked it or not.
@@ryanroyce Travis being nervous about flirting with his real life wife's character is hilarious to watch as he stumbles around like a red faced high school kid.
to make a hero you got to make them suffer and not wine so that we want to see em win the more a hero suffers the more people relate and want them to win, to make a villain they have to be the exact opposite of the hero they have to be malignant and they have to be threatening this goes for all stories, this is why this story works so well but it is moving a little slow im not digging how its taking up so many eps to set up the payoff
You mean the kind of payoff that comes at the end of a *series*? A series as in it has multiple episodes? This story originally took 44 hours to tell and you want it done it three 25 minute episodes, how do you have the attention span to properly enjoy enything.
@@hhylobates4098 no, the percy arc story line payoff, clearly each character has their own story this one is taking longer than the last one, this is 12 eps first story we smoked in 3 ep we 2 eps in and not even to the confrontation yet
kill dragon the most dangerous monster in Dnd takes 3 eps tho they could have done it in 2 but meh character growth and so on, killing a vampire and a witch 2 eps in and fight nowhere to be seen i can already tell this is gonna drag out for 2 more eps or even more
Our Patreon videos are ahead of RUclips. In other words. We already reacted to the next video.
I block hints and spoilers. Like. The show does a great job at explaining
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If you look closely at the bodies on the tree. The women dressed as Kiki has antlers nailed to her head
The fact that they chose to roll the credits with just the sounds of ropes creaking was a powerful and upsetting choice.
The "It's us" moment, when it happened in game, was when everyone watching knew we were in for something intense.
I've watched a TON of reactions from non-Critters and you guys are seriously insightful. You're catching more than anyone else. Props.
Thank you kindly
I love how the noncritters are getting random things or upset at things that will happen in season 2, 3, 4 and dont even know it yet. Theyre getting upset at their own imagination going somewhere not knowing the path has already paved out.
Pike's necklace is called a Holy Symbol. It's basically the equivalent of wearing a cross, but for the Everlight. She channels her divine magic (healing, the shield, etc) through it
Facts
They hint at and tease Vax and Vex's background. But we've had hints of the twins' relationship and why Vex might be a little stand-offish with "Kiki." The twin half-elves have always been them vs. the world. They could only rely on each other - and would. That's how they've survived. Some hints at that relationship...
In the very first episode when Keyleth is wondering why they are in each other's company... she groups Vax and Vex together, noting that they only think about themselves (and they reply in unison). As they head out to confront "the beast," Vax and Vex discuss Vex's sensations among themselves. They don't trust the rest of the party to share suspicions. And when the party is under house arrest, the twins note that they could probably manage to sneak out where the entire party have failed (though they opt not to).
Now someone who is... well... unproven... is starting to slip in with the pair (think back when the twins were beaming at each other when realizing they have a home). Vex is not entirely unjustified showing concern that it might be a dangerous dynamic shift.
I do love their dynamic and how much both of them really grow as characters while learning to trust the team - especially in S2 and S3!
The girl dressed as Pyke was voiced by Scanlan's voice actor's daughter.
Sam Riegel is a treasure. Also an EP, casting director, AND screenwriter for this (along with Travis). This is what happens when you let people with a deep understanding and passion for the source material get put in positions of authority on a production. What a novel concept!
The boy from episode 1 was his son too iirc. The girl from episode 1 was Vax’s voice actor’s daughter.
Ironic that his daughter hs something to do with Pyke since... ya know... Scanlan's secret letter...
@@cas2762 what so they made Sam's kids voice all the dead kids?
Not all of them, Kestrel voiced child Keyleth in “Pass Through Fire”
10:20 Man, you're not wrong. Druids start slow but by higher levels, you're looking at everything from thousand-year lifespans to changing into dragons or demons or other powerful shit, to switching off a hurricane if it's in their way, to the Awakening spell, where you give a plant or animal human-level intelligence basically forever.
One of the strongest NPCs in the Eberron setting is an intelligent giant redwood that exists because of that shit. It's a druid itself, and other druids live in it. Crazy.
this one seemed to forget all of that when she met Cliff.
@@bcn1gh7h4wk Eh, nobody's perfect. Great jumping-off point for following her character arc, though.
@@Geth-Who And no matter how wise or intelligent your character is, in the moment a player can have the memory of a goldfish.
Dragons? Yes, Demons? hell no, they're all about the power of nature. Elementals and some mythical beasts can be fair game thou depending on the type of druid (not all get dragonshapes for example).
But yeah, they get spells, wilderness skills (which can let them actually commune with/influence animals and potentially draft some reinforcements in the right circumstances... or avoid a fight with a pack or wild beast entirely in a pinch), animal companion (unlike ones recruited by animal handling and offerings of treats etc, a bonded companion grows in strength and ability with the druid and who doesnt want an epic T-Rex for a pet?), shapeshifting (such utility, need to fight? turn into a bear. Need to shift heavy weights? Turn into a bear. Need to track something? Turn into a bear. Need to sneak around? Turn into a tiny bear... There's a shape/bear for all occasions!). It's an impressive kit of versatile class features. Of course wizards, sorcerers and clerics tend to win in terms of sheer BS they can pull with the power of magic, anime and god on their side respectively but druids, if your games arent focused heavily on city and urban adventures, tend to be awesome.
@@accywacky2699 Keyleth literally got Shapechange late in the campaign, and turned into a goristro (and I think a beholder and a dragon) to test it. Hell of a spell, lets you become any creature with a challenge rating equal or lower than your own level.
D&D adventuring parties have more hit points than "regular" people
(farmers, merchants, innocent bystanders, even some soldiers)
because they have learned to withstand damage because of their
experience (in the first campaign, Matt did use XP rather than milestones) in combat.
Also, those where either wraiths or shadows, their touch drains something from the living. Either direct life energy for wraiths, in game terms, they drain levels by inflicting 'negative levels' on the victim, each negative level gives a stacking -1 penalty to various rolls and if your negative levels ever equal your total character levels? Dead. Plus dying this way typically ensures your body/spirit revives as an undead too though that typically takes a day or more rather than be some instant zombie apocalypse effect. For shadows they drain attribute points... either strength or constitution. Run low on strength? You cant move or do much of anything unless its purely mental plus at 0 you pass out. Run low constitution? It reduces your hit points and most notably makes it harder for you to pass fortitude saves... which are the thing you use to block being drained so it gets easier and easier for them to drain you.. And at 0 you just die. As with wraiths, dying to a shadow will cause your spirit to turn into an undead shadow after a certain length of time.
As higher level adventurers, the vox crew both have strong ability scores and levels so they dont die instantly. Plus those levels and having a hardy constitution will help them pass the fortitude saves to resist being drained when touched. This is probably why Kiki got so messed up because, well, she's an elf and elves tend to have less constitution due to being all slender and frail-ish (they can get buff, but a buff elf is still not going to be quite as beefy as a buff human or orc could).
“They give me sibling vibes.”
Oh you sweet little fools.
Oh don’t worry. They’ll see the “Power move” later on hehehe
Lol, oh dear... XD
Ah the Briarwoods, awful people, awesome villains 😁
The worst people doing the worst things for the best reasons *and* the worst reasons all at once. Plus Grey Griffin 😁
if the briarwoods are bad what about Dr Ripley
So Vax and Gilmore aren't official, but Vax definitely swings both ways and is accepting of Gilmore's flirting at the very least
He uses Gilmore's flirting VERY much to his advantage. 🤣
We love a bisexual king lol
21:00 Ya Boy can’t stay still when the true depths of the Briarwoods villainy come out…
It was riiiiiiight there. Such a detail
Since you asked, I like that you all talk. Often one person dominates.
We try. Domination happens if one or two of get so too excited
Every time I watch that scene now all I can think of is “Oh hello laudna”.
At 20:22, 'These niggas got sacrificed for a meme, bro' had me rolling! Others have said it and I'll repeat it. The rest of the season just gets better and better. Looking forward to your reactions and thoughts.
The meme that keeps on giving ;)
Just to put this out, comparing the “It’s us” moment between here and the tabletop campaign, the CritRole campaign had such eerieness as you hear the details of each Vox Machina look alike hanging from the tree as you see Keyleth’s VA come to the realization by her face.
Never mind Mercer giving such vivid details as you realize he came up with this damn scenario.
It’s just ten flavors of awesome.
Oh gods, the VAs reaction was SO intense. Like just watching it dawn on every last one of them.
Vex’s being like this because it’s the first time her brother’s attention has been diverted. You need to remember, they were taken by their father from their mother at a young age to Syngorn (the elven capital) & fled it years later, only to find their mother had died to a dragon attack - they’ve only ever had each other for years. Vex has an air of maturity because of what she’s been through, but deep down Vex & Vax are troubled people who’ve only ever lent on each other & Vax’s attention being diverted to Keyleth is a threat - in Vex’s mind - to her pillar of support.
It’s easy to miss because they’ve only had a small conversation about the dragon attack & about Syngorn, but it puts into perspective how much they rely on each other’s presence & attention.
12:00 Unfortunately, that was just a normal arrow. Since the wolf-thing is some sort of undead, a single arrow would barely even inconvenience it. It would have just been a waste of an arrow if she had fired.
You have some sharp eyes, not missing a single detail. Like well deserved
I think she only had ONE Magic arrow to fire, the rest are ordinary arrows. Ever shot an arrow at an undead beast? They tend to not give a s@&$
Yeah, I think her comment about how much it cost means they did not get the pile she put on the counter.
No, she grabbed a lot of them, (but I don't know if they lost any with the falling bag, and not sure if all were fire arrows or some other types also).
@@sqxbarto9229 Yeah the magical arrows weren't on her person, Vex was probably trying to save them for the Briarwoods and didn't want them to get mixed up with her normal arrows.
To be fair, Legolas is too flawless, even for Elven standards.
Vex and Vax are also half elves not full elves (not that it matters obviously since elves in D&D are a bit different than the immortal Tolkien elves).
@@operative2136 They're also lower level (At this point) than Legolas would be. Those rolls would be HIGH!
What they dont understand is, even if it hits it wont do enough damage. A waste of arrow.
Legolas couldn't stop plot armor on one Urk-hai
There's 3 storytellers in d&d, the players, the dungeon master, and the dice.
That (normal) arrow wouldn't have done anything.
That creature survived being ripped in half.
I think the problem was the distance, but I can be wrong. A fire enchanted arrow maybe could kill it permanently, a normal arrow, wouldn't. (but I think she had more fire arrows, she will use one later)
It was outside her range. She'd automatically miss.
Yeah distance and also piercing damage doesn't do a whole lot to undead.
for me it was the sheer pettiness of the issue. They could have strung up a sign saying welcome vox machina, they murdered 8 innocent peasants who had nothing to do with anything just to fuck with them and show off how evil they are
good message burned into your brain what these people are wearing and look like. And you're probably get worse if you're seen with or talking to them.
The reason the hanged people as a warning feel so evil is that it's pointless, If they were at least sacrificed or consumed, something would be sated or accomplished. It shows that Delilah and Silas will kill helpless or innocent people for absolutely no reason.
Exactly
The Sun Tree moment is an ICONIC moment from Critical Role. The cast has said since, "Yeah, that was the moment when we realized Matt was not fucking around and these Briarwood people were DANGEROUS". In the OG stream the Briarwoods had hinted and killed a bear as well and hung it on the tree for Trinket(Vex's Bear) too.
13:02 “Awww…poor lil broke bitch, you’re about to be sacrificed!” 🤣🤣🤣
You can tell this show is a banger cuz y'all were hype as fuck just TALKING about the last episode, before you even started watching this one 🤣
8:45
_Bandersnatch_
wolf-like demon of Norse mythology often referred to as a cross between dog, bear and leopard, with a long tail and multiple rows of sharp teeth.
15:25
_Rakshasa_
technically not one, but let's call it "were-tiger" of the Hindi mythology.
there's an actual encounter with one in C1 during the Slayer's Take arc, but this bit is totally unrelated.
I'm just at the start of the video but love your guys content keep up the great work I know i'm gonna enjoy this :D
I'm super excited to see you all get to experience the Whitestone arc! It has got to be the best story arc the cast could have chosen to really spotlight the highs and lows of their game.
Your reactions to the tree scene were everything I could have wanted! As a note, in the campaign, viewers didn't know the victims had dinner first; how the people were chosen was off screen until this show. Now I wonder, perhaps the Briarwoods recreated the dinner from episode 3 as some messed up need to rewrite how the first one ended?
This is the best introduction arc for people that are unaware of what DnD can be. The chromatic conclave is going to break these new people with the lows that arc reaches. "Fix him" is going to be epic.
@@andrewwebb3248 many critters are eager to see that intense moment on the big screen. I'm not sure how long we might have to wait; the second arc is so intricate that it feels impossible to contain into a single season! Maybe we should urge them to make an animated trilogy of movies with massive extended scenes, LotR-style?
Personally, even more than "Fix Him!" I have the intense desire to see "...is that my girl?" And listen to reactors lose their collective shit.
@@donkoogrr7506 I hope that's 2 seasons theres just so much setting up throughout S2 and the third arc.
That scene with the tree...oh man watching it slowly dawn on the players that it was a warning to/about them was delightful in a dark way. Matt's a master of describing that dark side of things.
9:22 Didn't Adorkable said "cute" to a zombie dragon or a skeleton dragon in the overlord dub reaction😂😂
In the game, the horses were just randomly killed and eaten by harpies.
I didn't know this until watching these streams and other people have said that animating animals is the worse thing you can try to do. Makes sense in this light then to get rid of the horses and not bring Trinket along who was in the campaign.
In terms of D&D mechanics, Vox Machina has way more HP than the red-shirted guards.
They don't waste a second of this show! Lots of "blink and you'll miss it!" moments.
All of the "strangest creature" moments happened in the campaign, except Scanlon's.
That "tiger-man" is a Rakshasa -- a conniving devil with backwards hands. No spoilers, but if we go by the campaign, it's not the last time we see him.
That wasn't an accident...Keyleth meant to push that dwarf into the lava!
When that moment at the end of this episode happened in the campaign, that was one of a few times when the cast asked Matt, "Dude, what the fuck is *wrong* with you?"
Scanlan (actually Sam the player) asks, "Is the one dressed as me handsome?" And the DM Matt says it's a human child and Sam goes "Oh.". That hit hard.
I don't remember who but one of the cast even says stop and you can see/hear Matt pause and force himself to keep describing the horror to keep the story moving.
the bodies in the sun tree hit harder in the original show because you had to sit there and watch all of them realize what happened going around the table. it was extra fucked cause thats when EVERYTHING changed in the entire campaign.
To quote 'Pull my Beads of Love', "I may be 42 inches of sexy, but I'm 69 feet of freak!"
If you guys get the chance, you should check out the moment they saw the hanging bodies in the actual campaign. There are "origin" videos that show the contrast. Matt is one hell of a storyteller.
What’s messed up too is in the original campaign, Trinket the bear helped them fight at the dinner party so when they saw the the bodies on the sun tree they killed a bear and put it in armor as well. :(
So many excellent reactions in this one 👍😂 us who knew about the tree thing were all no-no-no-NOPE when those poor people walked through the door.
I didn't know who they were until the symbol was draped on the neck and had that oh shit moment of horror.
So glad I saw this. Love these reactions.
The child at the end is voiced by Sam Reigels daughter the voice actor for Scanlan
bruh imagine leaving your horses to die although they just help ur asses
This episode was absolutely wild!
It's interesting how they are freaking out by Delilah giving the girl the necklace, but not by the woman having ANTLERS NAILED TO HER HEAD!
😅😅😅 like. We are hype over the subtle set up with the Necklace. It’s not about what’s more gruesome for us. We are basically hype over how good the writing was and started with a simple “gift” and that gift was actually a curse.
@@YaBoyRockLee That's fair.
Here is a list of everyone's classes if you're interested. It will give you an idea of what might be possible for each of these characters without telling you exactly what they can do. I say this in case you like theorycrafting between seasons.
Keyleth = Druid
Pike = Cleric
Grog = Barbarian
Scanlan = Bard
Vax = Rogue
Vex = Ranger
Percy = Fighter
Craziest shit about this show was the fundraiser. Critical role crew asked for $100,000 for a few animated shorts over a 45 day campaign. Furthest stretch goal was $1 mil for a short series. Their fans raised 3 mil in 24 hours and 11 mil over the 45 days. Broke all kinds of records
The original goal was $750,000 and the furthest stretch goal was 3mil, and they hit that after a few hours, by the end of the first day it was over 3.5mil.
It’s so fun watching this with you all!
I was showing Critical Role to a friend of mine and I recommended he specifically watch the episodes with the Briarwood arc. He was skeptical of them at first.....and then he got to the episode that ended with Matt Mercer describing what VM were seeing when they first got into Whitestone, and that episode ended witht he description of the Sun Tree and those people hanging from it.
Before he was like "Com on, how serious could the Briarwoods be as villains they havent really done anything all that evil yet.....oh, crap.....holy......yep, they really just be lynching peasants from the Sun Tree in the middle of town and dressing em up like our heroes? That's savage AF!!!"
Kinda proud of myself. I made a non-fan a Critter over the course of a few days!
I always used the Scanbo episode as my example being able to show how rolls could go in your favor or not with some quick thinking.
in a world where people have a direct line to G(g)od(s), and they talk back. (since it's dnd) Putting a symbol on someone then murdering them, as a message for your enemies. Sure that God would take it personally.
You want to know the really scary thing? You know all those horrible things that happened in the campaign, and thus the show? ALL of that was thought up by Matt Mercer, the DM. Now from everything I've ever heard about and seen of him, he's actually one of the nicest people you could ever meet. But I don't think anyone would ever want to see him legitimately pissed off and planning out revenge or something like that.
tl;dr Making a very good DM very mad is probably a very bad idea.
It's not a warning. It's a welcome.
It's a costume party! It will be fun! ...it was not fun, your bodies are a message to the... Ahem... "Defenders of the Realm"
In dnd typically a npc guard only has around 10 health, compared to the player characters (vox machina) who are all leveled characters at around 8-10th level, and that puts their health anywhere between 60-100 health, so it's not plot armor or anything like that it's just the team is waaaaay beefier than those regular guards. The wraiths steal life when they are in contact with who they are attacking and them guards only having 10 health makes it look like they are dying immediately while vox machina can tank a few hits from the wraiths. Edit: also Vex didn't shoot bc she didn't have any magic arrows, her regular arrows weren't doing any damage (they showed it happening during the chase, right b4 she shot the magic arrow) it would have just been a waste of an arrow. The end of this episode happened just like this in the stream as well, the tree was found, the ppl hanging were discovered, and then the descriptions of what these ppl looked like, then the players slowly realizing that they were effigies of themselves, and Marisha (keyleth) saying "that's us..."
Facts bro. I think that nailed it
Vex is jealous of Keyleth. She and her brother spent their whole lives together, relying only on each other, so she's scared of anyone "taking him away" from her. And yeah, the Briarwoods are evil as ffuuuccckk.
The tree scene is where the original stream went from a fun table to a master class in storytelling and execution. The table reacted to the scene being played out the same way you three did with shock and horror.
I love watching people who haven't watched critical role react to this series it's amazing and the series is phenomenal
If you continued to watch the credits go by there is no music. Just the wind and creaking of the ropes.
kiki’s strangest kill will always be the funniest to me imagine being pushed into lava and then they just shhhh you and tells you to go to sleep 💀
Great reaction !
Those of us who watched the original campaign knew that ending was coming, but it still hit hard.
Blessed Algorithm. I run a game store and I sell Dungeons and Dragons. All these years I haven't watched critical role. I tried, but watching role play never caught me.
I'm hoping they animate the rest of the stories. It's nice to know what my customers are talking about.
Enjoy the rest of the series. Does not disappoint.
They even joked about the family being basically cosplayers in one of their watch parties...! (including whether people would cosplay that 'version' of them)
you guys get everything ayyy°°
Something's tracking us? Better stop and let them get us! lol
you should've seen how everyone reacted when they first saw/heard how this happened in game.
but don't, finish this season first before watching the Briarwood Arc
Oh they did get a last meal. A good one. Surf and Terf. Stuff they probably never tasted before. Then took them and tortured them and hung them. Don't even think they fed on the people.
Speaking on the noting of Vox Machina's durability in the pre-discussion:
In D&D, at least in all the campaigns I've DMed or played in, once you're level 8 and above you're literally the stuff legends are made of. You and your party can perform feats that no one else can accomplish, everyone in the group individually is a warrior that a kingdom would be proud to call their champion and Emon now has an entire party of them.
That's why high level parties, levels 15-20, are normally seen as "godkillers." Because they can contend with gods and other ancient beings that are similar in power to gods, it's an epic escalation.
love ur discussion
Thanks for another reaction.
She a half elf rouge so skill yes, Legolas no
Vex is a half elf ranger. Not a rogue. Tho late in the game she does take one level of rogue, I think.
Vax’ildan X Keyleth
So, in regards to the guards being weaker than our intrepid heroes in episode 4 (and the guard captain, for that matter)… Let's go a little meta.
The average guard has 10 hitpoints. They're slightly better trained militia-people. A guard captain can probably be compared to a bandit captain, so let's go with an average of 65 hitpoints. Our heroes are at this point at around level 9-ish, so they should stand somewhere around 100-150 hit points. Mercenary work toughens you up right quick, and they've been at it for some time. Not necessarily successfully, mind you, but definitely for some time.
They were facing either specters or their larger siblings, wraiths. A specters „life drain“ attack averages 10 necrotic damage. Just enough to body the average guard in a single blow, but neither the party nor the captain go down *that* easily. A wraith can life drain for an average of 21 damage, which all but guarantees a guard dies in one hit. Although specters and wraiths share almost all traits and abilities, wraiths can do something their little siblings can't: Create more specters. As this has not happened or at least wasn't shown, I assume the assailants were specters, not wraiths.
So yeah, Vox Machina are capable and able to withstand attacks others would've (and have) succumbed to - for reference, see also Grogs grievous wound after the first dragon encounter in episode 1.
God I still remember how hard Grog was to drop by the end of the Campaign. I think he had over 300 HP by the end of it all. He was just a giant truckload of health on legs.
Shit got dark real quick
You also gotta keep in mind, in D&D talk, Vex and Vax are half elves so she’s not quite like Legolas lol
I hear ya. I never played a DnD. So its all foreign to me ha
@@YaBoyRockLee no worries! I play a lot so answering questions is fun for me!
@@Bled420 sounds good mate. Thank you
@@YaBoyRockLee loved your reactions btw, you’re all very into the show and it makes me happy that even new people can love this show as much as a Critical Role vet did :)
yo the rest of the episodes are out, you gotta finish it.
Facts. Note the pinned comment. Patreon is ahead of youtube uploads
7 more episodes to go. Come on go for Vox machina.
Here's a fan theory about Critical Role Campaign 3, The Girl with the Black Hair who was hanging from the Tree at the End, might be Marisha's (Keyleath), Character Laudna. I can't say more with out given away major spoilers but this is not confirmed as of writing this 27.2.22.
It's pretty solidly confirmed I think. Marisha did not exactly hide it.
@@haku8135 we only know that launda was jn white stone and during vox machina attack. We don't know who she was in white stone
@@richardsuplee8137 It's PRETTY clear she was the corpse representing Vex in whitestone that then came back to life. Watch that bit again, and then look at her character design.
@@haku8135 it's a good theory but we don't know of c3 characters were designed by the time this show was made.
Its a fun theory. But without saying spoilers from the show the time line the season presents and the back story Marisha has disclosed in campaign 3 so far basically rule out her being a suntree body. She was dead before Vox Machina get there and thats honestly really cool enough.
i am not a sibling but even i can see that a twin would not want to be left alone when they lived together their whole life and i can tell the twins have a goal they need to do so for one to go off on their own even for love is a sort of betrayal
i mean it wouldn't have mattered tho if she made the shot its a undead dog iits not gonna stop regardless
6:23 you didnt expect that? i saw it from episode 1 hell i had the couples all planned out from ep 2 poor drax or whatever that gigants name is he gets left out
His names Grog and he's only part giant, which is called a Goliath
Fun fact: Grog's player/actor is generally opposed to romance subplots for his characters, so Grog not ending up with someone was 100% his desire. He tried to repeat that in Campaign 2, but his real-life wife Laura Bailey (who plays Vex in this show) made it her mission to romance his character whether he liked it or not.
@@ryanroyce Yeeeeep, plus not dating someone isn't being "left out." Some people just don't date and the friendships between the party is fantastic
@@ryanroyce Travis being nervous about flirting with his real life wife's character is hilarious to watch as he stumbles around like a red faced high school kid.
to make a hero you got to make them suffer and not wine so that we want to see em win the more a hero suffers the more people relate and want them to win, to make a villain they have to be the exact opposite of the hero they have to be malignant and they have to be threatening this goes for all stories, this is why this story works so well but it is moving a little slow im not digging how its taking up so many eps to set up the payoff
You mean the kind of payoff that comes at the end of a *series*? A series as in it has multiple episodes? This story originally took 44 hours to tell and you want it done it three 25 minute episodes, how do you have the attention span to properly enjoy enything.
@@hhylobates4098 no, the percy arc story line payoff, clearly each character has their own story this one is taking longer than the last one, this is 12 eps first story we smoked in 3 ep we 2 eps in and not even to the confrontation yet
kill dragon the most dangerous monster in Dnd takes 3 eps tho they could have done it in 2 but meh character growth and so on, killing a vampire and a witch 2 eps in and fight nowhere to be seen i can already tell this is gonna drag out for 2 more eps or even more