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"The threads of fate are not puppet strings." and "There is much to fear, but not death. For it gives meaning to life." are both lines that hit me much harder than I would've expected the first time I watched this. That entire scene with the Matron of Ravens might honestly be my favorite from this season. I'm really interested to see where they go with Vax's new job as a "fate sheppard" in the next season.
A little clarification for what the Matron wants. She's not against magic that revives the dead, which is why she agreed to resurrecting Vex. As you said, it's Necromancy and lichdom and those seeking immortality that she stands against. Vex being revived is simply delaying her end, not preventing it outright. Everyone dies eventually and Death is nothing if not patient. It's those who seek to break their fate of death that she fights against.
*Pushes glasses up bridge of nose* Um, actually, most spells that revive the dead *are* Necromancy. (I'm 99% sure you already knew this, but you know.) She's against _soulless_ undeath.
@@SeanBoyce-gp "Ummm *takes your glasses and puts them on* ackshually that's how people classify magic and not the nature of the magic's intent". I'm only kidding around, like the classification of spells has changed so much and it's just mechanics. Cure wounds has been necromancy at some point so... . It's just weird to think that what an emt irl can do with their hands and breath is equivalent of a 3rd level necromancy spell (and a diamond worth 300 gold pieces).
@@AVJHalonen (rolls a Nat 20 on Sleight of Hand and takes the glasses, putting them on) In real history, Necromancy is the Art of Healing. What most people believe Necromancy to be because of Pop Culture and Media is actually Necromancy gone wrong. Basically, Necromancy in Media and Pop Culture is failed healing and failed revivification but on purpose. But because this Necromancy IS Pop Culture, the vast majority of people only know Necromancy to be Dark Magic that messes with the dead and uses the dead for personal gain. The actual truth is the exact opposite. And this is why all Healing and Revivification Spells in D&D are classified as part of the Necromancy School of Magic.
@AVJHalonen Well, techincally no. There's a different between being medically dead and mechanically dead. To equate it to our world, if you can perform CPR then they're rolling death saves, not ***dead***. Which anyone can do in 5e with a medicine check.
0:30 - *“It's been a while!”* Every Critter in the audience: ♬ _It's been a whiiiile…_ ♫ 9:37 - *“Aahhh! It works!”* Of course Percy would be the kind of guy who'd make sure that even the improvised scale model is actually functional - and then catch himself with it. 16:10 - *“The Matron of Ravens wasn't meant for Vax. It was originally meant for Percy."* Yeah, all that gothy stuff is, of course, _right_ up Taliesin's alley, so that seemed like the best fit, but then… *Liam:* _[shouts spontaneously]_ Take me instead, you Raven bitch! *Matt:* My, my, my! What an interesting plot hook you just handed me for free, that I can spin out over the next, oh, say, 300 sessions spanning three campaigns. Muahahahahaaa! 26:18 - *“Man, imagine if prayers like that worked. Like, in real life.” - “Like, they **_did_** something?” - “Like, ‘Please, let me win the Super Bowl!’ and then, like, fucking Skeletons come out.”* Well, inside every great football player there is a skeleton - maybe it works the other way around, too? There's no rule in the book that says a Skeleton can't play football.
I love that Grog basically has to "translate" what Percy was babbling on about. Fun fact: Vax becoming fate-touched was Matt Mercer's birthday present to Liam, since this whole thing started because he wanted to play D&D for his birthday. Also: Scanlan and Vax's plan? That was a real thing.
How critical role started was a birthday present to laim. But being fate touched was something Matt did for Liam because he was going through a hard time when his mom passed away. Not sure if it's still on RU-vid with the whole Foster situation but Liam asked Matt during the campaign 1 wrap up video.
Matt's lore for the Raven Queen is based on 4e, which included the Blood Pool as the main means of communion with her. It's very edgy, but I can't help but love it.
I'd love them doing a big campaign stream with it. Scream Stream month means wont be possible till Nov or Dec, but yeah i hope we dont just a BG3 stream if we get one, but have a full on group campaign with it
A group of ravens is called “an unkindness” not a murder, though can also be referred to as “a rave”, “a treachery” or “a conspiracy”. You can blame One Tree Hill for that tidbit.
@@Mastattak To be fair, if they were all the same, some would sound so hilarious no zoologist could get through writing an article: "Here we see common behavior in the herd of gerbels."
The Matron of Ravens mainly dislikes those that pervert death, like necromancers. Since all the gods and goddesses are beyond the mortal realm, and behind the Divine Gate, her Champion is her man on the ground in the mortal realm that can insure those who abuse necromancy and the like don’t interfere with the natural flow of souls too much.
I get breakfast at my favorite spot thursday mornings and listening to your vox machina reaction has become my favorite thing to listen to while i eat.
He's... not really a reaper or the boatman. He's the guard to make sure the boatman can continue to do his job. He's there to protect the sanctity of life and death, not really to be an active participant in either.
The THUD as soon as they entered made me laugh so hard I was out of breath. Honestly someone needs to cut in audio of Johnny Knoxville shouting “HELLO I’M JOHNNY KNOXVILLE WELCOME TO JACKASS!!!” and then play the music!!!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
the Burt reference led to the callback to "You leave when Burt Reynolds tells you to leave", said to a different dragon. and of course, back in the early 80's, Matt Mercer's mother played D&D at a Burt Reynolds acting camp with Matt's future Overwatch castmate Darin De Paul. The Matron's speech from the campaign was too long, but explains things better: "Then understand the wholeness of what it is you serve and what you represent, champion. Even after death, the soul is carried to another purpose, but it is that transition where it is at its most vulnerable. It is my charge, my gift-- your gift, now-- to safeguard that beautiful moment. "There are those that find the immortal soul one of the most pure and powerful means of energy, of sourced power, in this world. That is an abomination. "There are those that wish to halt the process and live eternally in some form of undeath or the other. That is an abomination. "There is also a difference between bending your thread around destiny, fate-touched, and perverting the thread entirely, for death is sacred. But not all deaths are destined, in that moment. Some destinies require one to endure beyond the moment. To meet that moment many times before the final death is to come. We must guide these moments across this web." That said, I feel they are making the Matron far more suspect here, and Vax is coming across like a Cultist.
To add to the whole Burt Reynolds thing, specifically the tie to Darin De Paul you mentioned there, Darin himself actually appeared in season 1 as the voice of Captain Stonefell (and obviously Sprigg in the campaign, reprising his old character from back in the day that he played with Matt's mother)
@kenle2 Any mortal could do that in this world. The Gods are just _really_ good at it. Blindly following with religious fervor makes you a cultist in "that sense" of the word.
As someone who knows everything, its always interestingh to here aarons thoughts - He either hits the nail on the head damn near 100%, or completely misses the mark, nowhere close!
It's missing yellow from the flag but if you remove the green it's pretty kinda the bi flag (blue is not the right shade, but besides that it's the same)
@@ChaoticTabrisall of the flag colors are technically the Pansexual flag. But it isn't the most popular / most used version which is the yellow blue pink.... But this version with green and not yellow IS technically one of the pansexual flags that exists, from what Google has told me. 🤷♀️ I don't really know why they decided to use a less popular version of the flag but they did.
I love Vax's arc and this show, but I do want to say that I reject the sentiment of "Death gives meaning to life". Honestly, I don't buy that and I think we should at least stop parroting it without thinking about it. I don't think anybody truly believes that if life had no end it would also have no meaning.
But would we have any motivation to grow, achieve or even love when you could truthfully say ... "There's always tomorrow"? Forever? It's really something we have no context for. Death, entropy and dissolution ARE reality. Everyone has to come to terms with that in their own way .. but most people can use a little help. A crutch isn't a bad thing when you actually have a broken leg.
@@kenle2 It's a fair point that we don't have context for it, so neither of us can say with certainty what that would look like - feel like. It is all speculation of a reality beyond our own. But, call me a contrarion, I have to say yes. Do you honestly believe we wouldn't love because we'd have infinite time to spend with those we love? That we'd stop growing just because our growth was finite? That we wouldn't achieve just because said achievements don't have a deadline? When I think about it, I truly don't believe that for one second. Oh, there'd be major differences, including and especially towards our life's outlook. And we may indeed take our time more with endlessly longer to do so. But it feels like a knee-jerk bleak assumption to think that our lives would be poorer for the lack of an ending and not richer for the capacity to go on doing that which we love life for eternally. Any kind of fatigue or individual's lack of meaning in their outlook I think would be a (case-by-case) issue that wouldn't actually be rooted in the lack of death as much as a lack of love. I could have just said "skill issue" as a short version of that but I am neither that funny nor confident. I get that death is a difficult subject and I don't mean to belittle people's methods of coping with it, but it's for that reason that I cast doubt on the strength of the "Death gives life meaning" crutch. Not saying we don't need one, but it seems like a brittle crutch to me.
