#sometimes it doesn't

People will spend days arguing about who's evil and who isn't, which decisions made sense and which ones did not, whether the plot point is solid or not, what's the consequences of that fake action in that fake world, who's a psychopath and who isn't, which group is better than the other, etc etc etc.

Meanwhile I'm there enjoying every single episode of that show. For ten years, this group of friends has met every week to roll some dice. They've created characters that made them laugh, and cry, and smile, and frown, and shout, in excitement, fury, terror and joy. Through them, they've lived adventures, drama, tension, trauma, in a sandbox world they'll never put a foot in. They've created wonders in Exandria, then destroyed them just to see what would happen (shout out to Emon and the Chroma Conclave arc 🎉).

Their world had mystical artifacts, so they created lost civilisations to justify both their existence and rarity. It had Gods, so they gave them backstories and myths, to make this world feel real. They understood that history in itself is flawed, so the knowledge of the past is changing. Each campaign, they went on bigger questions, bigger challenges. From very early on, Campaign 3 has been questioning the status quo between Gods and Mortals, and what we know of the deities has evolved as a result. Why should I care, really, whether Bell's Hells are right or not to challenge the Gods. It's obviously a storyline that Matt and the rest of the cast were curious to explore, so they're doing it. Maybe it'll work out great, maybe it won't, they don't know, and that's fine. After all, what is the point of a sandbox world if you cannot push a few red buttons.

And of course, not every plot point or decision is going to be resilient to scrutiny. It's an improvised ttrpg game, with 100+ episodes per campaign, and we're almost at 500h in length for C3. Yesterday, in my ttrpg, I forgot who my new vice purveyor was, after I overindulged a few months ago (... It's a Blade in the Dark thing). Last week, I invented a drag persona for my character because I was trying to find a distraction and I panicked. Ttrpg are soooo random, mate. Even with professional players like the Critical Role folks, it stays a ttrpg. Things get forgotten. Some things get developed and others don't get the time to. Discussions happen, and sometimes they happen again six months later because maybe characters have changed or maybe not. It's not a scripted TV show, where things can be planned in advance and you know the characters will stick to the script. Inconsistencies will happen, and that's fine.

tagged by @fleurdebeton mwah mwah!!

just realized i forgot the link

(this is very dumb but once I thought about it I couldn't stop thinking)

Dick - Despite popular belief, Dick knows how to pull together a nice outfit. He knows how to combine colors and styles and fittings, and surprisingly enough he's only a little behind on current fashion. The real crime is that, most of the time, he doesn't bother. He will just wear anything and go with it. Or worse, he will attempt to be "ahead of his time" or "bring back the classics" and it'll be a disaster. He doesn't mind though, half the fun he gets it's from seeing his friends faces anytime they see whatever he's wearing. He also buys a lot of things that he thinks are cool but once he wears it...

Jason - Jason has a very particular style that is more linked to what he sees around him and he likes than what's current fashion. He's also a more practical and easy type of person, so jeans and a tee is his go to (plus the leather jacket, of course.) But, sometimes, he'll see something he like and he'll try to pull it off, except he'll feel insecure and change it. The rare times he opts to go out with that it's going to be an outfit so un-Jason-like that once someone sees him they will have to rethink everything they thought about Jason. (Jason is unaware of that)

Tim - He's effortless fashion. Because of his upbringing it's kind of his second nature to keep up with current fashion, and to this point he knows very well how to pull together any kind of outfit. Not only because he knows how to pair things, but also because he knows how to choose pieces. Tim knows which color favours him, which brands have the best fitting, how to dress for each occasion. He looks good on everything because he only buys things that he knows will look good on him. He also opts for things that are atemporal bc it's a pain in the ass to go shopping everytime fashion changes.

Steph - She likes to joke that she's a fashion icon even though she knows she isn't (to be honest she's more into makeup than fashion but eh). She opts for color blocks or neutral tones that can go with purple. Half the time her outfit it's an statement and the other half is just the first thing she grabbed but she learnt enough from Tim that she knows how to chose what looks good on her. Sometimes she'll try something out of her comfort zone, wear it three times and feel fabulous and then never use it again because it's too much work finding something to go with it.

Damian - For Damian is less about how he'll look and more about the fabric and the colors. From all of them he's the one that have a much more strict colour palette. He likes neutral tones and the most color he will wear it's green or blue (he's slowly warming up to red but baby steps). Damian usually prefers soft natural fabric and oversized t-shirts and he absolutely despises denim. Sometimes Dick likes to play dress up with Damian and Damian will allow it only if he's on a good humour, and even then he'll never go out of the house wearing anything that Dick praises. If he really likes any piece of clothing he'll buy at least three of then (sometimes Jason will joke that Damian look like a cartoon character that only wears one thing. Damian will retort that that's rich coming from Jason).

+ Bruce

Bruce once knew what was fashionable. Back when he was starting into Batman business and didn't adopted any child.

Today he absolutely gave up on keeping up with that sort of thing and he actually pays a personal stylist for when he has to go out as Brucie.