Scanlan name-dropping "Burt" was an in-joke reference to the game; anytime Scanlan had to go undercover or disguise himself he tended to throw on a fake mustache and call himself Burt Reynolds.
In D&D where gods are real and can literally walk amongst you, they can often times become a Deus Ex Machina. To combat this Matt made the gods of this world literally sealed away behind a divine gate to limit their influence on the material plane. This is one in-universe reason why they usually only communicate through cryptic visions and messages unless you're able to form a strong enough connection to communicate through the gate or draw power from them.
Speaking of Scanlan, we just found out today that for the past few months Sam Riegal has been battling tonsil cancer. He had to have throat surgery and radiation, had to relearn how to speak. But, thankfully, it sounds like they caught it before it got too bad and he'll make a full recovery.
To give you an idea of the changes between this show and the actual DnD game, Scanlan actually used Dimension Door to teleport into the dragon's stomach and placed an immovable rod there (instead of the immovable sword in the show and the forceful rear end entrance). The show likes to change how a lot of things were done from the actual campaign, but stays true to what things were done and why they happen. Also, Percy's trap in the show was a "glyph" spell from Pike in the campaign, but a lot of the planning was still from Percy in the campaign, so it made sense to simplify the story. I think they did such a good job adapting literal days of campaign footage (maybe even weeks) into a concise and coherent animated series.
The Matron of Ravens is a god like any other (well, not quite like any other, but that would be a topic for another time), there are Temples dedicated to her all over the planet and in most major cities.
fun fact! and spoiler for the campaign: . . . in the original campaign vax and scanlan also ended up inside the dragon. only difference, scanlan used dimension door (which they sadly didn't add to animated scanlan's abilities, hence the different way inside) to teleport himself and a shrunken down vax into the stomach to place an immovable rod, which was essentially very messy, but worked and got them the same result as in the show.
I forgot that Vax had Reduce on him. For the animated show they haven't introduced Dimension Door yet, but also because Matt let them fudge the rules on that one because they studied with Vex first - Vax was right, it shouldn't have worked 😆
I think it was also Vax's plan not Scanlan's, but I understand why they made the change, especially when they changed the context of how they end up inside the dragon.
I am realizing if you think of it as a nareative story it would super feel like theres a lot of fakeout deaths and near misses but youre 100% right, the campaign as just a long one and matt mercer is a very good encounter maker so the players came VERY close to death and even had people go down and need resurrection or a deal like keyleth in the ziggurat and vex in the tomb, the danger of losing a character is very much real. But when you condense a 115 episode campaign into a handful of hours it can easily seem like contestant fakeouts
I get they don't show it as well in the cartoon as the table top, but how he hasn't realized scanlan is literally the heart of the entire team gets at me. I wish I could think of something that may change his mind.
@theshadowfax239 no real pick on him, the cartoon doesn't do anywhere near as well ofna job showing it.... or rather it's been way more subtle and the few times scanlans been the focus he tuned out because of his early impressions. I'm sure he'll see it if they do the final season justice. Fans that saw my first comment probably saw the reference mentioned that'll definitely do it.
@@moarblood5120One of the obvious problems/differences is that his own team don't actually like him, so how is the audience supposed to? Sam/Scanlan made jokes because they made his friends laugh, instead of having the same brand of humor here in the show they roll they eyes at his dirty jokes, and they cringe at his singing instead of cheering at his clever limericks. So he just comes off as doing it to be annoying. Vax and Scanlan had such a close friendship based on Liam and Sam themselves, in this episode they have a poignant moment sure, but its like the first time they've ever spoken, there's no foundation to them being close enough to confinde in each other like that.
4:42 yeah if you don't have the commune spell a god will just have to communicate with vague stuff like a chance in the breeze or a dream because of the divine gate
Sam just announced why he was MIA for the last couple of months. He had HPV induced throat cancer and was undergoing treatment. He seems to be doing well, though I worry for him voicing Nott for the Mighty Nein series.
He was pictured with the group in the recording booth when they announced voice work was in progress for the M9 series. I'd assume they tried to get all Notts lines done before his surgery. He voice might have fully recovered by the time season 2 recording starts, or there may be a permanent, notable difference between the seasons in his voice work, maybe even in season 4 Scanlan too. The price to pay for him to still be around, we'll just have to be ready to explain to viewers who only watch the show and are unaware of bts stuff...and whack anyone who says he should have been replaced with another actor or AI
oddly, Ripley was sowing dissension among the Conclave. She's probably done as much to fight against them as VM has, although for her own purposes. She's got Umbrasyl and Thordak ready to fight each other.
Oh Kyle. We got at least two, probably three more seasons and Scanlan’s story is just starting to pop. Sam Riegel destroyed hearts and souls with his roleplay, and was consistently the best tactical player in combat. Spellcasting is significantly depowered in the show, but he still makes an impact. Getting into a dragon is a good first step but…as we saw, only the first step. Getting Grog and his melee-locked offense probably would have been more efficient, but this…was funny
I agree the Ripley alliance dosent really make sense, the basic reason given is that she informed him about the vestiges...but that was just once for the sword and shes not seen being useful again. And Umbrasyl could just kill her after that, take her scrying orb, or use Mythcarvers powers himself. As you've now seen in the last episode, he knows how to do that (somehow, since he dosent sing and thats how Mythcarver is activated.) The real reason is she had nothing to do with them in the camapign, so between her last appearance in season 1 and her actual return it would have been over 2 and a half years real world time since she was last relevant, so shes put into the dragon plot just so viewers dont forget about her.
Ah see Ripley has no moral compass other than "what is best for me?" She is like a human dragon and she is clever as fuck, soooo she has found a way to manipulate them.
Vax could walk away from the Matron, but he fears that it would mean that Vex would just drop dead. He is, as she said, Fate Touched. He can bend fate to him, something the Goddess of Fate wants under her own control. In the campaign, she even says that all the gods covet the Fate Touched, and that she snapped him up from under the nose of another - specifically, Vax had been asking Pike about the Everlight.
Vox season 3 has been announced for October third, the Mighty Nein we only got the update that they're recording voice work for it, so at least another half year before that's ready.
7:46 My guy... Of COURSE there are multiple temples to any given god. Why on earth would that NOT be the case? There are like FIFTEEN different churches of the SAME GOD in the town of 3k people I live in.
The show does change some stuff from the game. Vax going off to do Matron of Ravens stuff was a consistent character choice, but Grog being quiet about Kraven Edge was a game mechanics thing. It was a cursed sword that compelled him to act a certain way, he didn't really have a choice.
