I Am.

‘Why a - why is you so mean to me???’

‘Snea snake’

‘Their brand new 5e setting, Aeorar. … Ayroawra. Auroara.’

‘Let’s make ourselves a bit more suspicious.’

‘Wildmother, please watch over the cast - the crew!’

‘Looks like I ganked your new Robbie - your new friend’s body!’

We are all fools in love.

CRITICAL ROLE vs. THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA

Throughput C1, Keyleth feels everything at 110%. Her righteous fury - toward the world for being the harsh place it is, toward Raishan - burns with the fire of a sun. She grieves deeply and achingly and angrily. She loves her friends with everything she has - is afraid to love Vax because she knows just how hard she’ll love him if she lets herself, what it could do to her. She doubts herself because she cares so much all the time. She cares about doing the right thing and is terrified of getting it wrong; she cares about being the leader the Ashari deserve; cares about meeting her own sky-high expectations of herself.

And after all the idiots back when C1 was airing complaining about Marisha making “““suboptimal””” choices to roleplay Keyleth’s emotions, after the dumb fucking complaints about her being ‘overemotional’ or ‘illogical’ or whatever… here’s TLOVM, where Keyleth is at her strongest when she lets herself feel everything.

A demon wolf threatens Vax, and she punches it away, fangs bared, full of protective rage. Terror for her friends, love for her friends, leads her to clutch-cast shields of thorns to save them from Brimsycthe, from the Briarwoods. She sees a rebel friend cut down and the camera zooms in on the grief in her eyes, followed by utter rage as she transforms into Minxie for the first time. She Skywrites the Whitestone crest with hope and delight in her eyes. She holds back an undead tide with a wall of ice, screaming and yelling.

And I’m just. So happy! I’m so happy that the show is letting Keyleth rage and shout when she’s angry, and be scared when she’s overwhelmed! I love that they’re illustrating how her deep sensitivity is the curse that makes her insecure… and the blessing that makes her care so fiercely that her spells can tie down a dragon, hold back a zombie horde.

This is the woman whose righteous anger will drive her to be a protector, whose ferocious caring will lead her to be the best possible leader of her people. TLOVM lets her scream and yell and be messy and full of feeling - and shows that even as it’s hard for her, even as she struggles to process her feelings, and even when her feelings lead her to clash with her friends, they are what makes her strong.