This Number Coming Up Is So Creepy | Critical Role | Campaign 2

[@inkywhip]

I would like to thank crtirolestats for keeping track of every fucking time they said the words nine or nein

[@grayalmeida9622]

Its especially great because before it was plot relevant, it was just a meme among the cast when they would roll it, and I think that's when CRStats started keeping track, not for plot reasons

[@cashewboi8567]

The prominence of the number/word 9 in Campaign 2 was insane

[@superk-boy5299]

agreed... I am starting to believe that this was purposeful after the number became a meme within the first five sessions.

[@Ruinred]

@@superk-boy5299 absolutely. I turned to my wife after they named themselves the mighty Nein and said... The number nine is going to be featured ALOT in this campaign. Because that is what good dm's. Twist the story they planned (if one was even planned) into what is relevant at your table. It's shares story telling

[@vanessaasman8047]

Not to mention the fact that 9 count of betrayer gods are evident even in Campaign 1. Unintentional coincidence that really caught on later?

[@FeyzaOnay]

@@Ruinred but also the fact that Talisien said he chose the number of tattoos (9) randomly at the beginning

[@SupergeekMikeDowntime]

It's like the ravens in campaign 1. Obviously it was deliberate after ep. 44, but the fact that Matt had a raven on his shoulder in the first official art for Vox Machina was WILD in retrospect.

[@bryanwoods3373]

I think Matt said in the wrap-up that a lot of it was unintentional, but he started leaning into it early on.

[@ethanpeterson5640]

I think he said he had the idea about the Eyes of Nine ever since Taliesin handed over Molly's backstory, so I'm pretty sure, similar in the ways that there were themes of hunger leading up to the Tharizdun story arc, the nine bandits was some very clever foreshadowing on his part

[@Neutral_Tired]

@@ethanpeterson5640 unlikely

[@decimation9780]

@@ethanpeterson5640 I mean the Tharizdun arc never really ended, as Matt said, Tharizdun was pulling the strings behind the scenes to hopefully watch as the Somnovum devoured all of Exandria. Of course that plot was foiled by a group of gagglefucks, loveable and badass they are, but it was still another attempt at freedom by the Chained Oblivion.

[@scottmcintyre2809]

He definitely mentioned that the three demi-Gods (Uk'otoa(uk'otoa) and company) each with three keys keeping them locked up was him leaning into it to possibly throw a red herring about the Eyes of Nine at the party.

[@pencilbender]

spell _broken_

[@gbyjrjn]

The real Nonagon were these poor sods they met. Too bad they dispatched them so quickly, could've been a very different campaign.

[@louisbizarrogotico]

The real nine was the friends we made all along

[@tristandelasuertemexcla]

Kinda yes

[@Lukasaske]

There were nine Nazgul too, guys.... Have anyone seen J. R. R. Tolkien and Matt Mercer in the same room...? 🤔

[@BrawnyStream]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh Shit

[@scepta101]

And Nine Walkers in the Fellowship

[@dblundz]

Man the writers on this show are so good, never get enough credit!

[@inkywhip]

Everyone say "Thank you, Dani!"

[@JordanGold5227]

I honestly find it hilarious when people genuinely believe this show has writers and is scripted. As though they actually believe that 8 people could rehearse for a weekly 3-4 hour show on top of running a company on top of being full-time professional voice talent. EDIT: (added "and is scripted" because people didn't seem to understand my original meaning)

[@loviebeest]

@@JordanGold5227 maybe not writes for the script but writers for the plot and setting

[@Kalenz1234]

@@JordanGold5227 It's a dnd campaign. It has at the very least one writer and his name is Matt.

[@TimoRutanen]

@@JordanGold5227 It's not written line by line for certain. But a DM definitely has written down things, and you can often clearly see Matt reading a description of some area the group is entering. Also no doubt some of the players have written some things beforehand, the best example of which would be Widogast's Magnificent Mansion.

[@Danocaster214]

This is amazing. I feel like this would make an amazing intro to an hour long supercut of all the nine references lol.

[@inkywhip]

You know, I might take you up on that idea some day. I can see the edit already

[@Kaiser8361N]

@@inkywhip that would be awesome please do this

[@electricbluetiramisu3713]

I highly appreciate the use of Kira’s theme for this

[@inkywhip]

'Twas very fitting

[@rutheforbandet6157]

@@inkywhip I mean, JoJo themes in general are really good for edits. The soundtrack is just that good (Which is to be expected from a series that literally names it’s powers after bands).

[@sagescribe_]

It's so weird. I've been seeing that number in other places as well, like Brooklyn 99. What a mystery this is

[@eoincampbell1584]

Plus there are 9 planets in the Solar system (if you count Pluto and don't count the ones that are around Pluto's size that we never talk about).

[@The_Dragon_Tiamat]

@@eoincampbell1584 or if you count you know planet nine?

[@tristandukes5548]

Guys, I looked up the number 9 on google, and you’ll never guess what number I found!!!!

[@xolwora2762]

A gun?

[@tristandukes5548]

@@xolwora2762 *a chair*

[@crimson6849]

@@tristandukes5548 *GASP*

[@kohakunushi3028]

By the 9 divines!

[@Seymour101]

Funnily enough it had absolutely nothing to do with the betrayer gods. By the way was anybody else convinced that the true BBEG of the campaign was tharizdun ? I picked up those threads during the yasha/angel of irons act and as somebody who is kinda familiar with D&D lore ; I was absolutely convinced up to like episode 135 that the thing that vokodo was running from was Tharizdun ( I mean i know it was the city but I thought the city being sentient was also running from tharizdun and it just happened to scare Vokodo along the way) , I expect the campaign to go on for like another hundred episodes. Tbf i'm not sure what I was expecting , Tharizdun is a literal god who created the abyss , so i'm not sure how the nein being the assholes they were would have fought him.

[@inkywhip]

I picked up on it thanks to the What the Sheet podcast. It all made so much sense and I genuinely thought Tharizdun was going to show up

[@avacattran6566]

I mean, if you re-watch like 87-99, the whole cast is convinced that tharizdun is the bbeg. They thought they were gonna have to pursue the shackles of him and everything. idk when the thought process really shifted aside from the really obvious moments, but after they fought obann, they really thought they were going god killing again

[@zaincassis2612]

Someone with a lot of time needs to make a compilation of all the times the number nine came up and was rolled in campaign 2. Edit: Maybe critrolestats has something like that.

[@holden426]

I'm just going to take a shot in the dark and say it came up 99 times.

[@KuroiAllen]

From what I found: till episode 125 the number 9 was rolled 842 times. There is a excel sheet with all the dicerolls on the critrolestats site, if you want to delve deeper into it.

[@grayalmeida9622]

Smash cut to Kiri saying "Welcome to the Mighty Nein!"

[@nightwindow7240]

Lucien truly was the Killer Queen.

[@ParanoidCritter]

The effects, the choice of music, the zooms and quick cuts... just marvelous. Some of the best CR fan editing I've seen, well done.

[@OverkillDM]

"...ALIENS." - Liam O'Brien

[@WispyWispy]

If we ever needed evidence of supernatural forces subtly influencing reality, this phenomenon would certainly be a good contender. Nine/Nein came up way too godsdamned often for it to be mere coincidence, and I pride myself on being someone who doesn’t believe in superstitions. (It’s really just confirmation bias, but still… can’t be serious all of the time, y’know?)

[@captainkiwi77]

I mean, Matt did openly admit that yes it was accident at first but he was subtly planting red hair Inca the whole time intentionally as well and started really leaning into it as things just kept getting more and more nein

[@WispyWispy]

@@captainkiwi77 True! Still doesn’t explain all of the narratively-appropriate “9” dice rolls (especially the tarot reading with Lucien), which wasn’t the focus of this video but important to also point out. 💜

[@filianor4495]

@@WispyWispy its just happenstance a 1/20 chance for it to happen. if the cast focused on the number 8 for this campaign we would all be losing our minds whenever the number 8 came up, could have been any random number.

[@WispyWispy]

@@filianor4495 Yup! Like I said, confirmation bias.

[@JacobGrim]

Watch the Will Wheaton dice curse video. It... May change your mind

[@remavpralb7414]

May I also add: 9 schools of magic

[@amywriterrose]

Uploaded nine hours ago...

[@Moldy135]

I was hoping Matt was going to have a custom made d9 to use during the boss fight, but it's probably just too on the nose

[@Linkolnverse]

That is genuinely wild how many times it came up, how early it came up so often, and just general lore wise the number 9. Like the fuck?

[@inkywhip]

It first came up in episode 1 actually. Making fun of Caleb's accent right out of the gate made for an interesting story lmao

[@thatonesentientdonut3012]

id also like to add the three uh, dudes, like ukatoha and the other bros with 3 eyes

[@brunorodrigues5849]

This video gives me the vibe of those hour+ documentaries on KZbin that are super well produced and edited... just keep watching and watching

[@weebjeez]

So... the thought only just now occurred to me... they were 7 or 8 for most of their campaign (thanks to The Traveler's presence). . . and some of the most important things happened when they were 9, be it guest players or NPCs, when they had one additional person along for the ride, their story really resonated outward... Reani and Vilya and Yussa and Essek... So many "nine"s that made ripples.

[@hypersectomy]

Mighty no to nine.

[@carmelcity9527]

It’s like poetry, they’re nine 👀

[@Ffsuah]

I feel like this video sums up campaign 2 pretty well

[@Youngisgod]

The music was so tense I thought I might explode. 😜

[@Orangeveil]

Not to mention all the times they rolled 9s on really important and relevant roles lmao

[@bones8908]

Man, these script writers are insane!

[@Pedro93ssj]

Nice addition of Kira´s theme xD

[@undead_pr1est978]

LIAM: Aliens!

[@Kaiser8361N]

Gotta thank the dice gods for how much they rolled a 9😂

[@filianor4495]

guys imagine if the number randomly picked to be a stupid plot device for this campaign wasn't 9... but 10 :0 how crazy would that have been.

[@honeysuckel1351]

Can you fucking imagine how ridiculous it would've been if taliesin had rolled a 9 instead of a 2 at the end

[@Micaerys]

I was going to like this but there are 999 likes so instead I will reflect that I like this video here in the comments

[@Micaerys]

Oh, no, it changed! XD

[@ryanmassey1618]

Can we get critrollstats to fi d the amount of times the number 9 came but or references of 9

[@Dakarn]

I mean... you'd have to include every time they rolled 9 as well. Lol.

[@Kim-j9m6v]

campaign 3 can have the number 23

[@superk-boy5299]

The eyes of NEIN!!!!

[@leowalker6396]

The Might NIEN

[@Lucifer-bo3ol]

NIEN NIEN!!

[@TieflingKumasi]

Did they give Molly nine eyes before or after 9 became so prominent?

[@inkywhip]

Before, which makes the rolls, the name of the group, 9 deities and other instances not tied to Molly's story so much more creepy

[@Albatross0913]

Matt didn't have anything to do with Molly's eyes either which is also creepy, I think Matt said he already had the plan for the eyes of nine before Tal told him about Molly

[@emilymary5831]

this is the Best!

[@laughingkoala8623]

This is very cool! What is the background music?

[@inkywhip]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6qqeIGlndJ0ipI

[@eryvac0074]

It's Yoshikage Kira's theme from JoJo's bizarre adventure

[@michaelhughes8784]

you should have cut this together with inglorious bastards nein

[@mysticlucario3947]

What episode is the first clip from?

[@inkywhip]

Episode 8!

[@nickd7935]

@@inkywhip ahhhh *so* close!

[@DKOILive]

@@inkywhip well it is episode 8, but there were pre-show sessions, which collectively would have formed an episode 0, so then it is the ninth episode ;)

[@lasonris8934]

Nein!

[@elijahtiemens5532]

This campaign was way too long.

[@Albatross0913]

I disagree, I didn't want it to end

[@chaosincarna]

Its almost like there is someone controlling the narrative, telling a story of sorts. Wow. -_-

[@Kim-j9m6v]

the only controlling the narrative part was lucien being the nonagon, with the eyes of nine. caleb picking nein was unrelated. the amount of nines they got when rolling during the start of the campaign was absurd. them ending with nine characters was also a 16/100 chance. matt giving eventual meaning to molly's tattoos doesnt change the dice rolls nor explain why they named their party after this number.

[@chaosincarna]

@@Kim-j9m6v It's almost like a cast of actors are playing a game with a DM who's helping direct their actions. It's almost like people who trained to memorize scripts and have sheets and sheets of papers in front of them are preforming specific actions to achieve aspects to push the narrative a certain way. I get it, we all like to enjoy the story and it helps some with thinking this isn't a predetermined matter, but common. They have a company now, they need to meet a certain level of wow factor and complimentary buzz words or they lose the audience. I did enjoy the show for what it was. I don't have less of a good time with a movie because it's scripted and filled with actors playing roles. Its not a bad thing to understand the most realistic aspect of entertainment behind the scenes.

[@silvercandra4275]

@@chaosincarna To quote Molly: "I like my bullshit" I'm going to keep believing that it was all just up to chance... or more accurately, I think they all picked up on the number 9 beign significant by themselves, and the more it came up, the more each one of them drew attention to it. Basically it started out as chance, and then we all started seeing what we wanted to see which was more 9 symbolism, all the while Matt and kept dipping in some actual symbolism... Do you know what I mean?

[@michaelpolinsky4611]

@@chaosincarna ok so 1) its not scripted, Matt doesn't even fudge his rolls nor do they fudge theirs There is NO script, Matt has actively thrown away campaign notes on stream because the players did something to make that portion inert (like Caleb using a tsunami to slam a ship so the entire naval battle and possible capture/rescue/escape of the Nein was now nothing but the path not taken) 2) They just play the game, their friendship is the glue that holds it all together outside of being a company. Yet again, Matt himself has talked on this and said if the game starts becoming less fun because of the streaming or toxic fans then he is more than happy to go back to what Campaign 1 began as, a private game of friends with noone but them having a say in it

[@michaelpolinsky4611]

Hell the whole idea that Sprinkle was the Traveller wasn't even an actual plot point until Matt realized its potential long after they got Sprinkle