Revolutionary

[image description: fanart of cytherea the first from the locked tomb series. she's shown in profile, striding ahead while holding a sword. her eyes are wide in an expression of uncanny calm and she is spattered with blood. end description.]

[id: artwork of maya and julien davinos. they are drawn standing beneath a green and red archway or border, made up of vines, a sword, and an armored hand holding a rose. A pink-orange sky is visible behind them. maya is taller and older, wearing a green dress with gold edging and several layers of necklaces. julien stands beside her with his hands behind his back, wearing a black and gold doublet over a red shirt. both of them have similar long, curly black hair, and the same dour facial expression. end id.]

One of my more niche but deeply held Critical Role headcanons is that, out of Vox Machina and their greater extended network, the character who is most likely to have ever been a client of Marion Lavorre's is actually Cassandra de Rolo.

The whole "Primus asking Wick to kill someone was supposed to be a way of giving Sam agency in Wick's death" thing really does highlight what a fascinating medium actual play is. Like, Sam and Brennan clearly collaborate very well. And have done great work together both in C4 and Calamity (and possibly other places I haven't watched yet). But it highlights such a stark difference in their storytelling instincts for Brennan to be like "ah yes, a chance for this heroic, good person character to get a heroic death" and Sam to go "nope, time for my character who's trying to figure out what being a good person means without the structure of his religion to make a harsh choice." And the fact that they don't have to come to a compromise, that Brennan offers Sam a choice to respond to, and then Sam makes a choice Brennan will have to respond to is so cool! It's definitely something that can cause problems; if a DM and player really aren't on the same page about how to tell a story, the story risks falling apart. But most versions of collaboration on art would require the two of them to find a compromise on their instinct before presenting it to an audience. And actual play instead allows us to see how storytellers respond to each other's instincts. I've said it before, I'll say it again: a major part of the appeal of actual play is that we aren't just watching a story, but watching the process of telling a story. And this was such a fun example of that