Sketchy

they’re sharing

it’s a key difference in perception. fic isn’t given. it’s shared. it’s part of a fandom community— in which readers are also an integral part.

it’s probably inevitable mission creep from the increasingly transactional nature of the internet and fandom-as-consumerism, which was always gonna happen after corps worked out how much bank there is to make from those weirdo fan people

this complaint falls apart to me because it's incongruous with any other critical role campaign's villains. like. it's a d&d show. the villains are over-the-top. they're fully irredeemable from the moment they step on screen. they do wildly horrible things. this is a game being played for fun and entertainment. the villains need to also be entertainingly evil at times. and the most recognizable and popular villains of the prior campaigns are largely reprehensible. some of them are highly charismatic. some of them are nice but upholding a corrupt and evil institution. if that sounds familiar, it's because it also describes c4 villains.

it feels like people expect brennan to bring the "the villain has a point" trope into the campaign, as if signalling c4 as a brutal, mature and difficult campaign requires that we have a villain who is Right But His Methods Are Wrong because that's become a lazy shorthand for a villain who is complicated and interesting~

delilah and sylas have a backstory that is sympathetic and tragic but they are still Baby Eating Torture Monsters who try to end the world. lucien is charming and enjoyable to engage with but he's still a murderer with a cult of personality trying to become something incredibly destructive. the cerberus assembly are a corrupt arm of the state, even if all of them aren't like trent. take any villain from c1 or c2 (i haven't finished c3 but the villains were underwhelming to me) and compare them to primus or yanessa or any of the minor antagonists and you will not find that much difference in function or execution

so is the criticism that the plots and schemes are evil for the sake of being evil? they're not. the villains are all doing what they're doing to maintain power, wealth and status. their motivation is not "repress the populace because it's fun and we're evil" it's "this is how we maintain the power our families have enjoyed for centuries in a world where the source of our power is fading from memory."

or is the criticism that there lacks a sympathetic heart at the core of the monstrousness? because the PCs have barely interacted with either of the apparent "big bads" of the campaign (they have both appeared in less than five sessions). however, if you've watched and paid attention, there have actually been hints of the "tragic backstory" for both. primus is clearly stuck in a cycle of abusive patriarchs (and has had two of his sons slaughtered in a week, so his ep 31 rage is what most people would consider at least understandable) and both primus and yanessa have made comments about the slaughter of their family at the end of the shapers war, when at least one of them was a child.

if the criticism is that there's a lack of nuance, then what is your definition of nuance? primus and yanessa are horrible and cannot be reasoned with, sure, but otto einfasen is a villain who is a reasonable and shrewd man allied with the protagonists for the time being. aranessa royce is a heroic character who has only just been divested of her ties to the institution that is the main power hub of the villains. for every character who is a snarling monster terrorizing the PCs (amariya, aniko, etc.) there are bad guys who are characterized as nice people who care about their families but believe in things destructive to the PCs or the world (iris halovar and the faithful of the creed) or people who still want to benefit from the system despite being aware that it committed evil against them (maya davinos)

Being supportive of binary people is relatively simple, they have decided to sort themselves into one of the boxes that we have lots of experience interacting with. Being supportive of nonbinary people can be comparatively tricky, because you have to resist the urge to create box C and drop them all there. That's how we end up with various prejudices like "woman lite". Humans really, really like to categorize things. It helps us think. Unfortunately, sometimes it helps us think wrong.