Is Critical Role Becoming Another MCU? (No, it's not)

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[@PlayYourRole]

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[@TheMountainLynx]

Show me someone who wasn't excited when the DM used their previous campaign PCs as current campaign NPCs, and I'll show you someone who hasn't played more than one campaign with any given DM.

[@browut644]

When my first vtm character was mentioned by the GM in a post Gehenna game I was playing a while ago I got so god damn giddy and excited by it. It sounds dumb but it’s almost like meeting an old friend again especially if it’s a character you could only really use once for a campaign

[@aoibhinquinn7310]

I was playing in 2 separate campaigns in the same world at the same time, and I fucking _adored_ when my DM referenced the other party. Now I'm in a campaign that takes place in a big world that a bunch of my friends have already played in, and I'm so excited when I hear references to the stories I've heard from my friends

[@simoncrawley1152]

Agreed. Anytime I have used a callback or a cameo my players have absolutely loved it

[@dazeo4393]

havent had parties last long enough for their party to become actual legends or recognised through history. BUT i have a set of items that appear throughout the world that the first group i played with found a piece of and it was pretty significant to their kit but didnt have any plot significance yet. then when we tried some different settings and after 4 different short campaigns we landed on the most fun one being a Pirate themed one that would then become my take on spelljammer for my world later down the track, in the very first quest they had to find some "inheritance" money that had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. they took their rewards from the chest that was the inheritance itself, and one of the items was another of that set of items. and one of the players, the one who used it in the very first campaign, screamed and started kicking their legs because they werent really certain if all of the campaigns were truly set in the same world yet and for some reason my word wasnt enough and they needed a tie to a previous campaign to believe it was true lmao

[@Eimi.Signo.]

Yeah, I wasn't excited. And I have played multiple campaigns with a DM, and been that DM as well. We have had call backs to previous campaigns. Heck, there was a character who died in the first campaign, which I used for a one-shot later where his family were tracking down his belongings, when in the next campaign my brother's character had a giant tattoo of said fallen character on his back because he was his hero, to now where in our campaign my mother's character is a devotee to the fallen character who has been lifted up to sainthood. Yes, we all get super excited when his name is mentioned. But we slot him in to places where he makes sense. And the DM never plays him. He will forever be his original player's character. Having Delilah as a patron, I thought was brilliant. It made sense. But the rest just bothered me. Then you have Vox Machina, who are practically god level, find out that there is a potentially world-shattering problem and saying to a group of noobs with no clue say "Don't worry, you got this. I've got my own stuff going on." That did not make sense. Why didn't Vox Machina just handle it? They were far more equipped. Same with Mighty Nein. Why didn't Beau and Caleb call in the gang at the start and say "Yeah, there are a bunch of squishy people trying to handle this, but we all are familiar with this guy and stuff's getting real. Time to take over." Why were Bells Hells not pushed to "side quest" territory while the big guns came in? It doesn't make sense to me. So no, I wasn't excited, I was just confused and felt any relevancy Bells Hells might have had was lost. I quickly stopped caring, which wasn't hard since I wasn't all that into the characters anyway.

[@FakeAmberFranklin]

Part of me feels like the reasoning for a lot of the cameos is because they’re gearing up to leave Exandria behind as a setting once the Daggerheart playtest is over. Including the callbacks is great fun for the cast, but it can also provide some measure of closure for the audience. I may be wrong though, I haven’t checked out Daggerheart yet.

[@rootyful]

Daggerheart is very surely designed in a way to accomodate Exandria - even taking names for player and creature races from the ones Matt is using at the table where possible.

[@mattcanters]

Matt has said multiple times in episodes of 4-Sided Dive and interviews that he's wanted for decades to play with a group long enough to be able to bring back old PCs as powerful NPCs and show how they've affected the world.

[@rantdmc]

C3 is Matt Mercer's Infinity War and Endgame, where most people agree is where the MCU should have stopped and before most fans found it impossible to keep up with it. Nearly everyone realises now that CR is planning to leave D&D 5e behind some time next year when C3 reaches its conclusion and develop their own high fantasy TTRPG, Daggerheart. But this is what Matt has decided will make his cast happiest, to draw all 3 main CR campaigns together and tie his Exandria story together before starting a completely different Daggerheart story. Over and over again, Matt says he is NOT leading this story towards its conclusion to make CR fans happy, but to make his FRIENDS happy

[@Addy0302]

Matt talked about bringing characters back on the most recent 4-Sided Dive, saying that he only wanted to bring them back when it makes sense. To me, this story feels like a culmination of all the campaigns do why would the characters from those campaigns just sit idly by?

[@Nightdominia]

I agree. You have two past teams that essentially blocked problems on a potentially global scale already. It makes sense that they would at least come and lend their expertise however they can. We may not see everyone, but we can possibly pull that context from what we know of each character. Even Scanlan is probably playing music and stuff to keep up morale at bare minimum.

[@Melina_Evarblume_Seelie]

It just wouldn't make sense for the world to not give it's all during a world ending threat. The characters getting involved are literally leaders (which explains itself) and mages, which make perfect sense as they're incredibly powerful individuals with a penchant for learning and some stake in the world surviving.

[@yoshypl9901]

Possible solution could be timeline - maybe action happening at the same time as previous campaigns did

[@vincentgeiszler3749]

@@Melina_Evarblume_Seelie100% this

[@itap8880]

@@yoshypl9901 That on the other hand may destroy all stakes of a world-ending threat. To put it in MCU terms, Eternals loosing would cause too many characters dying off-screen, without a proper resolution. That cannot happen.

[@GeneSargentArt]

The difference between the MCU and Critical Role is that whenever CR brings back a previous character it really feels like it makes sense. That's why to me it makes the world just feel bigger and more expansive rather than fanservice-y

[@debard8302]

I've had the honor to play in a long running world with multiple campaigns happening in it and everyone had the same reactions as the CR cast when old characters are brought up or new characters come connected to old ones. It's a magical experience in a long running world that can also bring so much together for an overarching plot which is what feels like and if I recall exactly what Matt wanted to do for this C3

[@EilonwyG]

Honestly, I think it's why I love Critical Role best out of all the live plays I've seen - it's the way the cast reacts to the story. That is real, their excitement and their passion and involvement in the story. And how they all just love building this shared world and story with each other. We get to watch, but it's their story. I'm just happy they let us go through it with them. But this is why I will never just listen to the podcast. I need their reactions. It's everything.

[@razgriz2276]

If you like that check out World of IO, by Dm Brett Ultimus

[@Picklescape]

I haven’t enjoyed C3 as much and I find the cameos frustrating at times, however Matt has always made clear that the game is for his friends first and foremost and it's clear that *they* love it, so I can see why he's doing it. One thing that is for sure is that if Bell's Hells ever gets their own animated series, it will make for brilliant tv.

[@DanGronlund]

I started watching Critical role with campaign 3, I have not watched the previous campaigns more then a couple of episodes. But to me the excitement of the players when then see or hear about something from the other campaigns coming back is uplifting and enjoyable. And it gets me excited to watch more of the other campaigns to learn more of the backstory to what I'm watching now. But I dont feel like its a requirement to have done so. They are telling a story here and now and its easy to follow along with it as it is.

[@crazyhardin7298]

I literally did exactly this fan service last week for a campaign I dm, it's in the same world as a previous campaign, and decided it makes sense for a previous character to drop in, and even reached out to the player who moved away and no longer plays and they Skyped in and reprise their roll, it was amazing

[@YLPMcLean]

I feel like this campaign has so many callbacks and cameos because it’s the conclusion of a trilogy and their next campaign will be a fresh start

[@matthewlaird5235]

The cameos make sense with in the story. The casts previous characters wouldn’t just look up at the moon being held in place, and say oh well I’m not going to do anything about this.

[@feitocomfruta]

In a similar vein, that “content fatigue” is quite prevalent in another “cinematic universe”: RuPaul’s Drag Race. Initially, it was one season a year, maybe an All-Stars season occasionally. But then the international series began to start, and fans would watch those as well, so it was maybe three seasons a year. But a few years ago, fans were complaining about content fatigue because you had US, All-Stars, Belgium, Spain, Germany, France, Philippines, Canada, UK, and more, many of them running concurrently so you had to watch four to five episodes a WEEK to catch up with the fandom. What’s strange is that with the exception of any “vs the World” seasons (and the lip-sync assassin model), EVERY season as self-contained so you didn’t necessarily need to watch everything to know who a queen was. But there was a compulsion for fans to watch everything and it caused some people to stop watching. Where the MCU model fails is that they made the interconnectedness a necessary plot point, so that compulsion was required to enjoy the movie, instead of letting the movie and plot remain mostly independent of the MCU continuity. Drag Race and CR both have those tie-ins and connections, but they are optional to the enjoyment of the series at hand.

[@kathyl9429]

I don't mind the "fanservice" because this feels Calamity -esque, but more dire so the call backs are like a final farewell

[@draughtoflethe]

Honestly, I think it's simply good world-building. You've got these groups of incredibly powerful characters who have faced world-ending threats before and established themselves in the echelons of power or otherwise in positions of influence in the world, and then a few years down the line, a huge, obvious, world-endangering threat presented itself. If Matt had neglected to involve the PCs and major NPCs from previous campaigns, imagine how many people on KZbin and Reddit and other platforms would be demanding to know why these established figures in the world were sitting on their hands while the world was falling apart around them. Because that's the thing: they're not just PCs and NPCs from previous campaigns -- they *are* figures in the world. They're part of the setting. The Darrington Brigade appears in a sidebar on page 83 of the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. One of the suggested adventure hooks for Whitestone in Tal'dorei Reborn has Percy's youngest daughter running off into the castle dungeons with his latest invention. The point is, once the campaign they were played in ended and they stopped being PCs, these characters became part of the world that Matt Mercer has been creating for well over the decade that we've been privy to it, and that world is alive and changing. Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein didn't disappear to some Shady Pines nursing home for retired adventurers; they've continued to exist and act in the world, under Matt's control but with the input of their original players, and to write them out of any future stories told during the lifetimes of those characters would be to cheat the players of the influence their characters *earned* during their time at the table. The only way to avoid having those characters participate in world-spanning threats would be to avoid telling any more stories during the lifetimes of those characters, or to restrict the story potential only to threats that no one in the larger world ever finds out about (a la the final arc of C2 with Cognouza, and "We're the heroes that nobody knows about"). Matt hasn't chosen to do that, because he feels there's more in his setting to explore within this general era in his world's history, and he's telling the stories that interest him and his players (and a not insignificant portion of the fanbase while he's at it), and there's nothing wrong with that. What GM doesn't want the opportunity to explore the parts of their setting that they've only hinted at previously? Matt has repeatedly said, everything in the past two campaigns has been building toward the story he's telling now. So yeah, I think that's just good world-building and good storytelling. Does it make things a bit confusing for people just joining at the beginning of C3? Sure, but if someone began watching the original Star Wars trilogy at the beginning of Return of the Jedi, they'd probably be a little confused too.

[@JKevinCarrier]

I've enjoyed the cameos for the most part. And it certainly makes sense that, given the apocalyptic threat posed by Ludinus, that it would be "all hands on deck" to save the world. The only problem is, once you've brought Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein into the action, you then have to keep coming up with excuses why these powerful characters aren't just solving everything themselves, instead of relying on the relatively puny (and notoriously unreliable) Bell's Hells.

[@AquaLunaDesigns]

My "conspiracy" theory is that after this campaign they'll switch to Dagger Heart and move away from Exandria. I don't mind all the cameos but to me it just feels a little like a final bow.

[@tommaydag420]

possibly, though honestly, I don't see Matt abandoning Exandria, just drastically changing it, I think the endgame is pre written and the players are not able to save the gods, just stop Ludenous. Especially with all of these ancient threats that were alluded to being freed, to set up threats for future adventures. I think we're going to see a drastic shift like the change from age of arcanum to the present with elementals and such becoming the primary powers of the world once more and allowing for more of the eccentric races introduced in Daggerheart. ( not that some of these haven't already been introduced, heck the mushroom people even have an in from the creatures from the red moon.)

[@thebiggestcarl]

I don't see this happening at all. Exandria is his baby and he has put tens of thousands of hours into it and he absolutely still is. He said in the calamity wrap up that it never stops growing. hes not just gonna throw that away and abandon it

[@simoncrawley1152]

I have a theory that Matt is wrapping up the campaign setting with this. So far I’ve enjoyed all the callbacks and all of the stuff with the Raven Queen, the right of ascension, power in a name etc. Especially C1 and calamity have a lot of connections to C3. I look forward to the rest of the story

[@PolesitterPictures]

I agree with you FULLY, Jay. Like, I never really got the "fanservice" angle, because Matt, from the start, has always been wanting the game to be a gift TO HIS PLAYERS. That has always been the true angle of Critical Role, and it kinda felt like people en masse were forgetting this, and it pissed me off (towards the "fans" who were crying about how Laudna's character was "fanservice," not at Critical Role). And as for getting new people in, I got my best friend in on Critical Role with this campaign - like yeah, they get confused when everyone gets excited by an old NPC or location, but they have me there to explain everything they're confused by. Once again, it's not hard.

[@thebiggestcarl]

"And as for getting new people in, I got my best friend in on Critical Role with this campaign - like yeah, they get confused when everyone gets excited by an old NPC or location, but they have me there to explain everything they're confused by. Once again, it's not hard." this is very specific to you and your friend. i would bet money that the majority of people watching just found it and wasnt specifically from a friend or someone they know. "they have me there to explain everything" majority of people do not have this so theyre just left confused and not understanding whats happening.

[@PolesitterPictures]

@@thebiggestcarl Then they ask one of the thousands of Critters on the internet. Like I get social anxiety, but I've found that a lot of socially anxious people IRL have wonderful social lives through the Internet. Once again, this is not difficult.

[@thebiggestcarl]

@@PolesitterPictures have you ever thought that maybe people don’t want to have to do that? People shouldn’t feel like they have to do homework to enjoy a series. They will simply stop watching and watch something else. This is one of the reasons why campaign 3 isn’t nearly as popular as the other campaigns. I really don’t know why so many critical role fans act like you do. Saying shit like “it’s not that hard” to tear down criticism is ridiculous to me.

[@CryptofSkulk]

I dont have much of an issue with it for two reasons. 1. Let the damn players see their old characters 2. It just doesnt make much sense to me for Bells Hells to be getting to the point where their as "famous" as VM or MN and those other characters *dont* want to meet them or ask their help on things. Like lets say there is no immediate threat and the party is just being idle, yknow just minding their business. Your telling me word about the bells hells crew gets back to Jester and shes NOT gonna wanna say hi?

[@Melina_Evarblume_Seelie]

She doesn't want to say "Hi", just just wants to ask if they're pooping. Let's be real, that's Jester's version of prank calling D-list celebrities.

[@pUnPoetic]

I think its both, though I don't keep up with the main campaign - the living world element is very gratifying and I hope to see that the more my friends and I play. But also, they've recently started pushing more character-themed merch, so there is 100% a schill element here

[@featherbaal5791]

The cameo scenes are also awesome, I can't relate to the complaints.

[@isaiahb605]

Small additional point that may be mentioned later in the video and may have been mentioned in comments, but Keyleth’s mother was an important figure in part of campaign 2’s Vo episodes. (I’m sure I’ve misspelled her name)

[@rootyful]

I don't consider the character cameos (only) fanservice but... player service. That game table has years of roleplay history. There is no greater reward than seeing how your old characters, your old adventures, both the big and the small, affected and influenced the world. 14:15 Like look at them, they're all SO INTO IT. Love it. Also, as a fan... I don't know who is complaining about it. This campaign is a blast.

[@jibbermorgan]

I mean, when the avengers need to assemble...

[@trevorwilliams6362]

As someone who started watching one episode before the suntree reveal in campaign one, I've never really gone back to actually watch the previous episodes. And I've never felt like I have to.

[@nomadzophiel]

Honestly, I think it's a victory lap, like all of those cameos in the big fight at the end of Endgame. Ten years is a long time to work on one show. They all have higher profile VA careers and roles within the CR company now. I don't think we're getting a Campaign 4 where those same 8 people are there every week.

[@captainkiwi77]

Just at the ad break, gotta say strong agree so far. The PCs being reused isn’t a problem for me, I reuse them all the time myself. But the way every major plot point in this campaign has been accompanied by at least one member of VM or M9 is kinda transparent. Like I’m running a prequel campaign set in phandalin for my party rn, and in spite of it being in the same region, 30 years prior so most of the towns inhabitants are alive, I only let the familiarity factor drive so much. And when I slot old PCs into my game… they’re PCs from a different table, so not ones my players would readily know, they just make for cool NPCs that seem more fleshed out to my party

[@captainkiwi77]

Video end. Gotta say, yes I agree the callbacks are likely for the players, not us. And I really appreciate that they are trying to keep themselves interested. However my criticism that you can do this without having practically every major plot point accompanied by at least 1 old character remains. You can do it without making your fans actually feel barraged by these characters and like the knowledge of their importance is super necessary. If that weren’t the case they’d just be callbacks and cameos proper, not essential to the plot and fate of the universe (and these characters have completed their arks, we’re straying into super hero “just let him live” territory with this). Or you could do it more similar to jester worshipping a god effectively created by the campaign 1 party, but the fact that he is, isn’t relevant until much later in their story and doesn’t make people feel out of the loop, we built a relationship with the traveler, then Matt dropped the lore. It to me kinda feels like eschewing good character work to bring in the deus ex machina shiny old party members. And as a dm you gotta be pacing those things out so the party still feels like it’s got agency and they aren’t just their old PCs help.

[@EquinoxDoodles]

As a GM, I long to get the same reactions from my players if I'm able to not only run a long campaign but return to the world in some way.

[@novissstatic]

Thank you so much for the video! This gave me some inspiration to pull in some previous characters into my own campaign to excite my players with! Much love

[@mbg4681]

My take on the cameos for C3 is that it might be a grand finale for Exandria so that they can start a fresh campaign with Daggerheart.

[@TK_Brainslug]

Have only seen the best of episodes someone made here on YT for C3. I don't mind that they bring back characters from the other campaigns they are still around and they are crucial to the plot

[@heartsalive3157]

I love that you start this video just jamming.

[@benjamindavis7754]

Ok idk if Critical Role is planning to leave D&D ? And jumping to Dagger Heart after Campaign 3 ends ? But I think Matt is building a Kefka Level Boss Fight ? That might have Mighty Nein in 1 location fighting. And Bell's Hells w/ Help fighting in another location ? - Help could be Vox Machina or Crown Keepers or Returning Guests like Deena Prism and Freida.

[@dukedankulos4987]

I find it interesting that most of the people in the comments(As of commenting this) didn't actually watch the video or at least didn't acknowledge it and just say whatever they think about the situation. I personally don't care about what other people think the motivations behind creative decisions are as long as the cast is enjoying their game thats all the decision I need and all I ask for from critical role. At the end of the day they are a business and need to maintain attention but if this decision was made to draw in attention for the campaign then why would Matt continue doing it or the executives let him or the other players do it if its noticbly having the opposite effect. So it clearly has to have some artistic or personal reason to keep happening. So like in previous campagns when the fans worried about decisions that were made by the cast lets see how the story actually plays out and see what the point to all this is before deciding whether it is a good or bad creative choice. Because unlike campaign one and two campaign three isn't finished yet and we don't have a year or years of rewatches and discussion about the campaigns strengths and weaknesses with the perspective of hindsight so we are judging from a fundamentally different point than with other campaigns. Do you think all the fans immediately rejoiced when a scene happened that is now iconic? Not always sometimes it takes time and hindsight for an iconic moment to reveal itself. In summary just let them cook.

[@JecciClark]

It does seem like the end of C3 is going to be a nexus level event. Maybe going to a brand new world as well as switching to Dagger Heart

[@frozenfeonix1328]

well i know i popped off when at some point we as new characters in an old setting walked into a meeting with a regent and that quest giver was my old Hexblade and was like oh heres your team leader ive got other people to see today and the kings right hand doesnt need to be seen with a suicide squadish group for any reason but it was really hard to not go ya hes never letting us go theres no freedom after this to this character we would just be killed after getting mouthy

[@underagreenstar]

I stopped watching Game of Thrones after season 5. I'm someone who really liked A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, so for me it felt like the show hit a wall after season 5. The events from A Storm of Swords, namely the two weddings and their aftermath, were such great hits that the fans wanted more, but the previously mentioned sequels AFfC and ADwD don't really give that kind of Stark vs Lannister intrigue. Those books start exploring new characters from different areas of Westeros like the Iron Islands and Dorne. Instead of going along with the books, the show decided to end those divergent storylines and focus on the Lannister, Stark and Targaryen characters. It gave me the feeling that the show never really moved on from ASoS. Campaign 3 of Critical Role gives me a similar feeling. These don't feel like cameos in a new campaign. It feels like an epic/mythic level continuation of the previous campaigns that the PCs were just kind of forced into. It's like if you ran a module that re-enacted the Game of Thrones tv show but the players were all playing Martells and Greyjoys.

[@RMDragon3]

While I do think it's fanservice to some extent, it also makes sense for the story. Campaign 2 was mostly separate but, as someone who has never seen campaign 1, the end of it felt weird. To me it felt like many powerful characters the M9 knew were like "Yeah, we believe you when you say the world is going to end. And either us or other powerful people we know could help to stop it happening. However, we are only going to try once you have all tried, failed and died". I get why it happened from a show and game prespective, but storywise it didn't make much sense to me. Given how much it feels like Exandria as we know it is going to end with this campaign, to me it makes sense to bring people back when it feels natural in the story.

[@legionairesunny5507]

I love Campaign 3 the best I think. Probably because the characters are so relatable and end of the world plots? Oh man I love. Plus it makes me laugh so hard all the time.

[@bignelly9476]

There has not been a single campaign I have played where I did not get hype to see previous NPCs or my or my friends player characters as NPC’s. Plus it seems that the current world there playing in is coming to an end so if there is a time to call out previously beloved characters by both the players and the community it’s now.

[@dreemweaver6664]

Such a great analysis! Thanks for the excellent videos.

[@dragonlord1511]

My dm brought back my old character in a demon slayer campaign to help train the new characters we have and it was amazing even as my old character destroyed my new character when training it was just amazing to see that character again especially because we did not get to finish that campaign it was just amazingly to see that character again and I was really happy with what the dm did the with my old character

[@p4tr1xx]

oh no, just noticed the missing puzzle piece and it's driving me insane

[@Brenilla]

I’m super behind on c3 (not captured me as well, but I skipped out on c1 because it wasn’t my vibe). I think C3 is fine in terms of new viewers in terms of the cameos. I think it’s evident that thease people are important in the world and have reason to be there. The reason I think it’s fine is because naritivly it’s not playing as well mostly with how disjointed the cast is to caring about the big issue. Hard to explain and I’m at least 90 hours behind on content. Anyways Cameos are fine I love them it’s one of the realest parts of c3

[@gibusllama3418]

The hell? I'm EP68 of Campaign 3 and i didn't know Ashley was playing Fearne! WHERE WAS MY SPOILER ALERT???

[@TLBainter]

I think that Critical Role's MCU-ification applies more broadly to the way that this campaign is played, not really to the returning characters. Returning characters are, IMO (and as you mention), a great thing to include if you play with your friends for years across multiple campaigns. I feel like they're trying to say goodbye to this setting and these characters with an encore. I recently did the same thing with my group as we prepare to move into a different system entirely.

[@lollibyte5727]

I GM bunch of games that happen in same world, about the same time and occationally the streams cross and specially NPC:s and sometimes a player other character from other campaign comes and helps out with something that is going on, ensue the hilarity of your player playing 2 characters at once. works when you got very, very small group of people. For us, it is just fun way to toss around quests, change information, get different perspective and have fun. I feel like that's kinda the antithesis of fanservice if there would be audience, but you could say it can be fanservice to the players themselves at times. But hey that's kinda how it is supposed to go, making things fun for everyone who plays, not more or less, just keep everyone comfortable. For me, fanservice accusation for CR cast have always felt a bit selfentiteled, like audience is expected to be the center of the game, so everything the cast does is supposedly to a some group of audience, and people who are complaining are complaining because thet piece of audience they percieve to be a target is not them. It is impossible to comprehend, that they might be doing stuff, you know, just to amuse themselves, and that audience is considered with their auctions, but it is not the main point but the secondary thing. But that is mostly because this is my groups way to play. this sorta callbacks to make things fun and give nods. So yeah, I can see why that would be a miss to someone else. But I do have to wonder... why there is this need to understand everything that is going on. My friend started watching campaign 3 first, and has only viewed very few episodes of campaign 2. For this has, well, sometimes momenterally frusturating, but mostly it has just been enticing. Best things I have gotten in to have been stuff where I first got in in the middle. Do we need to know everything to enjoy something? Maybe we can get joy from mystery too. ^w^

[@espyname1977]

Ok but...anyone have a link, or words i should type into Google to find that music from the beginning? By the Irish kids?

[@snakebitcat]

Can you share the link to that song by those kids?

[@thebigdawgj]

Yes it is. It's a business now, no longer friends doing it for fun, it's all about money.

[@CarolinaMouse]

Look I have no problem with all these cameos. It’s good to visit old friends. Plus as long as VAX is free and is safe by the end of all this I have zero problem with it.

[@user-jn4sw3iw4h]

Not sold on the 'no' in the title. This is their Avengers1 moment/arc. It would not have worked, if they had made the previous stories just to set this up. Those who have enjoyed those are likely to enjoy this. It is a reasonable question, whether those who haven't will too. I suspect so. There will be people who will call out the "this will be even more entertaining if you're a fan of the previous works" as "this only makes sense, if you're familiar with the familiar works" Which is not true. Yes it does make sense the ruler of the town where Laudna is from, is an experienced hard-ass who is not the biggest fan of her patron. No you do not have to have seen C1 in either tabletop or animated form, to enjoy this. Same with bodyguard turned scout Orym has a boss who is politically connected and doesn't tell everything. If she had shared all the preparations she had done for the Malleus-key fight, the Vax-twist would have been an issue, now it isn't. etc.... Other than, be ready for a significant part of the room being impressed, for things where you miss why they are important.... Cap lifting Mjolnir, Bane beating Batman... You'll be fine watching only C3 I'd argue the biggest (if not, only) sign this might not be the case, is the opening song: That's just literally "cashing in on existing hype"-the song. Sure it has grown on me, since. And the argument on whether the existing hype is earned, is completely off-topic. But that song is the 1 reason why one could reasonably come to the, (I believe to be) incorrect, conclusion this campaign doesn't work if you haven't been a long time fan.

[@thebiggestcarl]

I respect this point of view for sure, but I do think it is fanservice 100%. I remember Matt talking about the possibility of having campaign one characters in campaign two and he said he didnt want to do that because he wanted the campaign to be its own thing. And then the next campaign Matt did exactly that. Its possible that he simply changed his mind. it also could just be me because I watched about 30 episodes or so of campaign three and just did not really vibe with it at all. The more skeptical side of me thinks that all of these cameos are because campaign three is just not nearly as popular as the others and they want the hype to be back like it was before. It could just be a me thing though. edit: and thinking about it more, Vax showing up like that is one of the main reasons i say this. I do not have the context of how it happened so i could be completely wrong. but does this not cheapen his final goodbye from the wish from scanlan?

[@kyokonightstorm5844]

It gives me the same vibes as playing a long running game series and having characters or locations from early titles showing up in later ones, and player decisions about major plot points early on being shown to affect the world around them as they get further in the series Take a series like Dragon Age for example. Two of the three advisors you get in Inquisition return from the previous games. Your choice about certain parts about the ending affect which of three different Wardens helps the Inquisition in a certain story mission. To name just a few of these connections. And if you want an example of true, 100%, I'm pretty sure the developers confessed it was, fan service then look at the Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3. (Yes, I am aware both series are from Bioware.) Now THAT is fan service. Campaign 3 of Critical Role is not giving me that vibe in the slightest.

[@captainkiwi77]

Like Button for “Uncanny squirrel jay” here

[@PatheticApathetic]

It’s not a legitimate criticism, actually. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with C3 not being accessible to people who haven’t watched 1 and 2, or even EXU. That’s the whole point of C3. It’s a direct sequel to the previous 2 campaigns by design

[@Taratatsa]

Well... It IS fan service. The players are just the first fans of their characters!

[@dahktur1505]

Yes, yes it is

[@chainclaw07]

I don't see the problem - is the argument that those who don't recognise the npcs get discouraged? because for most of the times, even if the audience doesn't get it - the players get to have these reactions and we get to experience those reactions - and none of us have the memories of those characters that they have. so seeing the players react is more than enough for new audiences to "appreciate" the hype. and imo if you feel slighted and discouraged by that, we don't need you here, go elsewhere - not everything is about you.

[@flynnoldman3542]

When you watch Critical Role without actually watching it, you miss half the story.

[@Mary_Studios]

Critical Role from what I've seen of campaign three before it got too sexual for me. Which I joined for campaign 2 and I'll admit I didn't really get the impact from the campaign 1. It felt like it was natural and organic. And as someone who has played in an on going world there have been things where a certain character has been shown. And I'll admit that some of them feel like a stretch of why they are there. However, there was one moment in another campaign that I wasn't in where they went to my character to bring a character back to life because she was someone a character knew from another character knew that I felt like it wasn't over the top. I'm also playing a character and plan on having another character that is a kid of another character (funny enough they both are the adopted kids of the characters) so that's a much closer connection. For my connected world campaign I plan on having them show up when it feels right not just I want to have a camio I need there to be a reason.

[@RobKinneySouthpaw]

It's fan service for the *players*

[@RealCodreX]

No it will not become "the next MCU" . It already has!

[@kropotkinsoldbones9149]

Jay is describing exactly what I am feeling. The fatigue of trying to keep up, to stay engaged and informed without "spoiling" the hundreds of hours of content that is still waiting for me to get to. It is so much, it's so ridiculous. I love CR, but I also miss the authenticity of the first two campaigns. Something else to keep in mind is that these individuals have been playing this game for so long that i am seeing more min maxing going on as well, which is a huge HUGE turn off for my interest and is not a reason I enjoy watching, in fact it subtracts from it

[@tatersalad76]

Tbh it just feels like Campaign 3 needs a lot of homework to fully make sense. And that's like, what, 400 hours of content so you can understand every little reference to every NPC or previous PC from their previous campaigns? I'm hoping they leave Exandria behind in the end of this campaign. I know behind the scenes WotC has been extremely unfair/predatory towards Critical Role and the sort-of shared IP that they have had. So it's understandable that they want to sever those ties.

[@jerrydburch]

👍love it 👍

[@Hey-Its-Dingo]

Let's all be honest, if these characters didn't show up with THIS plot for Campaign 3, long time viewers would be bitching about "Why aren't the previous campaign PCs helping out with this? They would all be affected!" So they legitimately can't win, no matter what they do in this regard. (Also, the fact that you can't say Free Palestine out loud in your videos is a perfect example of how corporations care more about brand safety than they do human lives. FTRTTS!)

[@GlitterGutter]

good video, I have to say, the cameos from previous campaigns are (at least for me) the last problem with c3 though...

[@DungeonsLover]

Hey, Jay, I really like you and your channel and I wish you'd focus on things different from CR. The constant rollercoaster of making a provocative video and then having to apologise to the snowflake community is just not worth it. Some fans are incapable of critical thought and seeing problems in the things they like. Please free yourself from the chains of "getting cancelled".

[@douglasphillips5870]

The cameos don't bother me too much. They were a bit overly done,and the actors play it up a bit too much, but in itself, it shows the game is part of a larger world beyond the immediate situation

[@Eimi.Signo.]

To me it doesn't fell like fan service, it feels like a business decision. Since the beginning of this campaign, I always got the feeling that I was less watching a game, and more watching an improv writers room session. I felt like the players were looking for the great line or dramatic story beat rather than just let it go organically. Take how hard they fought to find a name for their group. There was actual pressure to get a name, which makes sense when you can't really start selling merch without one. But it felt so forced and fake. The fact that Matt was pushing one story the whole campaign has felt like he has story beats he needs to hit so that it will make animating it that much easier. It constantly felt to me like the players always had in their back of their minds how this would look and sound in animation as well. Bringing in Vox Machina just felt like a short-cut to bringing Laudna back. They didn't earn her coming back, it was handed to them. That's what happens when you have god-like connections. But then, after hearing what Bells Hells was facing, Vox Machina, who were far more prepared for such a fight, just sent them on their way with a "You got this" and went back to living their lives. It was like they had their little cameo, time for them to dip out. The Mighty Nein have real connection to Ludinus, but were notably absent. Beau and Caleb are out there facing their old advisory and suddenly their old friends are too busy passing out juice boxes and sailing the seven seas to care? It didn't make sense to me. Why were Bells Hells even there any more? There were much more powerful characters who SHOULD have taken over at that point. I get why the players and the fans were happy to see those old characters, but I think it just didn't make sense. It felt forced and inorganic. I gave it 50 episodes, but then I had to stop watching. I'll just catch the animated series when it comes out. It's a much more economical use of my time.

[@TeamGoals]

Don't spoil the answer to your clickbait question in the title of your video. Kinda takes the sizzle off of wanting to watch it.

[@kropotkinsoldbones9149]

Talesin looks so unhappy and unamused

[@JusteFantastico]

I'm always so baffled when people get annoyed at things like fanservice. This thing was *literally made for you* and you can't even enjoy it? That's kinda sad, dude. That said, yeah. This is just friends having fun. I've had a DM I've played across multiple settings, worlds, etc. with for near a decade and pretty much anytime something has a hint of something from a past campaign (like a reused name, or object or something) it gets me a little giddy. Cause I know they'll do something awesome with it.

[@kropotkinsoldbones9149]

Jay is describing exactly what I am feeling. The fatigue of trying to keep up, to stay engaged and informed without "spoiling" the hundreds of hours of content that is still waiting for me to get to. It is so much, it's so ridiculous. I love CR, but I also miss the authenticity of the first two campaigns. Something else to keep in mind is that these individuals have been playing this game for so long that i am seeing more min maxing going on as well, which is a huge HUGE turn off for my interest and is not a reason I enjoy watching, in fact it subtracts from it