RekRolled

Gotta admit, slightly trepidatious about Marquet. My hope- and honestly my suspicion- is that they’ve been working with a cultural consultant about it. They’re big enough to afford it, and they seem like nice people who genuinely care about what representation means for their fans. 

Prerecording and one week off a month are just unalloyed good. 

Not doing the fanart roll makes sense, as this is getting to be a bigger show with less justification for putting up unpaid content. Presumably it’ll be a commissioned art roll. 

So I love all the dimension 20, but the Seven is hitting a particular sweet spot for me, with the aggressively feminine energy it has. I did a post a while back about how Jester Lavorre was my favorite of the whole season 2 Critical Role cast and the Seven is that but exponentially moreso. 

I feel like growing up in the general nerd space there were so many genre things that had room for exactly ONE female character, as long as she promised not to be too emotional or too girly. But also as long as she promised not to be too badass, because that might undermine the boys around her. You got a lot of characters who were constantly having to justify their place and play support. They often didn’t get to be quirky, and if they were afforded the spotlight it was in the episode where they got kidnapped or depowered. It got better as time went on. There was a road to here. But it still feels like a surprise to be here. Here’s this wonderful show where each character gets to be flawed and embarrassing and quirky and stupid, without any of that ever leading to anyone questioning whether they deserved to be there. Because they’re all also unspeakably and unapologetically powerful. They get to have raw, unpretty emotions and the narrative treats all those emotions as at least as important as harpies and gods. They get listened to by their friends, even when those friends are sad too. They get to be reluctant leaders, instead of fighting to get anyone to listen to them. They get to be angry without being written off as hysterical, even when they’re being unfair. They get to be funny. They get to be gross. They get to fake nauseating intestinal distress smells to get out of work. They get to be sexually assertive and forward with the understanding that they’re working with the safety net of a DM who’s not going to punish them for playing by having adult male characters take advantage of their teenage girls. Which is more than you can say for a whole lot of genre fiction.  They get to have girly wishes like magical talking rainbow horses fulfilled with the same seriousness as the wish to be a badass at violence.