The Legendary Cupcake, Critical Role C2 E93 Animatic 

Hustlers gotta respect the hustle she got beat at her own game

During the campaign wrap up they kinda discussed exactly that.

I'm also of the mind that the shame of being duped caused enough suffering in the Hag her need was satisfied

Surely Matt of all people knows not to accept gifts from Fae creatures, but Laura is just that good

Hags are fey creatures, right? Getting played at their own game, following the letter of the bargain while twisting the spirit to the breaking point, is something they respect.

Molly would be proud, this entire scenario would have been right up his alley. Jester gave that Hag a pleasant memory and a friendship that includes getting delicious cupcakes. Like Molly used to do, she left the place a little better than she found it.

VegetaLF7 now your making me cry. Molly was an amazing character.

Basically a Divine Trickster (actually that would be a pretty cool subclass)

@@unwithering5313 That's literally what the Trickery Domain for Clerics is supposed to be, which is the subclass Jester uses.

Uhhhhh Phrasing!?

None of us deserve Jester.

If I was the Hag, I would be after Jester's firstborn. Hag's do funny things when someone impresses them.

At the very least the hag now has a cannon weakness to cupcake 😆

@@Lucky13Ravens i thought it would have been something along those lines, with someone close to jester being taken, like "taking your companionship as the trade," meant taking one of jester's companions. as much joy as her art brings, technically companionship is also something jester holds very dear, so i could see the hag making an implicit agreement of taking jester's companionship, which, because of jester being so disarming (alongside the modify memory), the hag didn't consider friendship is one of the things that you can give someone without losing any yourself.

That's how you recognize a master manipulator. The type that tricks you while you're thankful for it.

“ts…yep”

"did I succeed" "... yep"

I think Mercer talked about this, but you can see it on his face: he is pissed...and he is proud.

“yyYe-pop.”

​@@philliptivis3082 I remember him saying that there should have been a few rolls. Like deception checks and such.

I was watching this live and I absolutely hollered

When I got to that part of this animation I was immediately hit with the same chills I get when a character in Jojo's bizarre adventure turns a battle around in some unexpected way. It was great.

Nihilistic Brat i was there too man, twitch chat was going absolutely insane

Oh me too this was an MVP play right here

I was there as well! If you watch Talison he and I had the same reaction.

don!t pronounce her name!!! I believe she has the power to scry upon you when you do.. like a deity would or some minor demi-gods would!!

I'm still scared because Isharnai is an anagram of I, Raishan and she's gonna kill them all

@@aneggwithissues8925 oh no

@@aneggwithissues8925 oh god

An Egg With Issues Raishan is very certainly dead. If she were alive, she would not be spending her time in the form of a hag.

Yeah, when Jester herself tells you to shut up and move, it’s time to shut up and move! It’s sort of like when your sweet old grandma swears - you know she’s serious. In truth this is an established trait of this party, and it drives me up the wall. That’s not a complaint, because the actors are totally being in character. But OMG can they dither when prompt action is called for. People have died because of their endless self-centered bickering, and if there’s one thing I could fault Matt for it’s not giving the characters even more consequences for the dithering sometimes. One of my favorite things about Shakäste in E7 was his ability to get them moving. “Hush” didn’t just apply to the NPCs! I’m only up to E15 so maybe the characters get better about it, but this most excellent spoiler from E93 makes me doubt it!

When the trickster cleric tells you to move, you don’t ask where to or for how long. You ask how fast.

@@josephatthecoop it’s fun reading this after episode 101 where they spend five minutes asking a character in various ways if their memory was wiped after it was pretty clear by the first question that their memory was wiped.

"We should not linger here!"

Honestly. The way she just drops that line so nonchalantly is perfect, hushed but firm in a way that would have shut me up immediately

Never once did she actually offer her hands.

@@elbruces she did tho, at the very beginning

@@elbruces this is a condensed version of a considerably longer encounter. Jester did offer her literal hand before this.

@@willowjohnson8553 well, she offered 1 hand technically, but i guess both was crossing the line lol

@@JubioHDX The Hag thrives off the suffering of others. So if Jester was willing to give one, she wouldn’t suffer. Taking both crossed a line for Jester, because it was a deal where the Hag could only benefit by crossing. But as a Trickster Cleric who was prepared for such deals, Jester set the pace of the entire conversation. She made an offer with a predictable counteroffer, reemphasized the potential counteroffer with other things that require hands, sweetened that deal with her reaction when the counteroffer was spoken, then offered a perceived surrender through the cupcake. The Hag couldn’t resist the cupcake under those conditions, and that was when Jester sprung the trap.

I believe Artagan said as much when he revealed himself to Jester. ;p

I actually think this would be an amazing narrative conclusion to jesters arc where she takes over and becomes the Traveler for Exandria

@@Halfwithero314 Lord knows Artagan doesn't really want the job.

Jester is the god of Chaos & Cupcakes.

Funnily enough, that's pretty much canon :D

The glowing soulless white eyes were such a fantastic touch too.

What's "the they are" supposed to mean? Did you add an extra word? Is there a second hag (pretty sure the hag is a she, not a they), or is my brain just not working?

@@joshhaworth2155 It's just a typo, I wanted to refer to the hag as "they" for simplicity

@@samuelbadger4567 Ah, never mind

@@samuelbadger4567 Or it makes it more terrifying because of the implication of there being multiple hags, on the same level of Isharnai all across Exandria.

Probably my favorite part of the whole thing (epic trickster move aside). She upheld her end of the arrangement too and sends different cupcakes for her to try out long after they escaped. I can honestly see Jester and the Hag being pen pals years later and arranging to send her new and even more delicious snacks on occasion, telling her all about their adventures and the wild and unusual pastries she comes across around the world. Jester didn't just defeat the hag, she befriended her.

@@VegetaLF7 and then nearly did it again with the dragon turtle. Jester is a MF force for breaking matts plans right now

@@JKSSubstandard So excited to see where traveler-con takes us. Also, lets give a hand to Laura. She went from playing a simple character type, the greedy sister who liked to bang the rich guy, and created Jester. DAMN has she grown as a player. They all have, which has been one of my favourite things to watch over all these years. So much development as players, and as friends around the table. But Jester Lavorre, she is a masterpiece. Also really want to point out Marisha's Beau. Kelith amplified the loud, annoying, awkward, and obnoxious. Also, super complex as a druid with spells, and it seemed to be just too much information for her to process. But she used Beau to play those off as character weaknesses, from a character I had a really REALLY hard time listening to into one that has me splitting my sides because she does it amazingly well, and now instead of trying to go through so much information as a player, she uses her character to literally knock information out of people xD. Its no attempted bash at Marisha, Kelith was just too much for me to handle. But with watching how she plays Beau, I have a newfound respect for her as a player. Makes me happy to see them jive better now that ever before.

@@VegetaLF7 I'm still convinced that the hag ate the courier jester used to send the cupcakes.

@@RoraighPrice So Jester is REALLY nice to the hag. Sending her meats to go with the desserts.

Ludinus put it rather succinctly, where her personality and seeming naïveté is unnervingly disarming, and it’s not even assisted by magic! It’s just how she do!

When you watch the actual episode of this with the Twitch feed, there is ONE single person, ONE in the Twitch chat amidst an endless rain of horrified players who remembered that Jester is a Trickster Cleric and tried to remind people. And it's a testament to how well Laura plays Jester that only one person in the entire comments section on that stream remembered that fact. Jester is such a sunshine child that it took me looking at her page on the Critical Role wiki before I discovered that she's Chaotic Neutral, I had her pegged for being Neutral Good at worst with occasional flashes of Chaotic Good (usually when Nott is involved i.e. the Fluffernutter Incident).

And yet the air of innocence remains, like she just convinces the hag that they became friends??

@@nuisancekat-8619 That's what is so incredible about this character, the dichotomy between who she is and what she can do is enormous. Her personnality isn't a trick. She really is a bubbly, naive and innocent young girl... but at the same time, she's also a cunning, ruthless and wise woman. Her sweet nature is not a front she puts to deceive people, it's who she really is, but that doesn't mean she can't use it as a weapon when she wants to and you have to be very careful to not underestimate her because she's a freaking beast. Look at her stat total, they're huge. And speaking in-universe, she is born from a tiefling and a genasi, was taught magic by an archfey who she elevated as a minor deity through sheer faith alone. Devil, elemental, fey and divine, that's four different kind of magic under her belt.

dub dee dub dee dooo ... donuts!

The Great Old One of Joy, Tricks, and Dick Drawing.

Don't you mean *ältritch* pantheon?

Laura is a dangerous person. Like a really fucking scary dangerous person

Don't fuck with the fey

well she did create a god soooo...

*clappity clap of clap*

I mean, based on last nights conversation between Jester and the traveler....this is heavily implied to be the case

You mean goddess

Or there is no Traveler.. only a shapeshifting duplicate of Jester's split personality. Matt (who is in on the deception) is the voice of her Psychic manifestation.

That. . . . Makes sense actually

yes I totally agree .. pretty awesome

The dust of deliciousness is now an official item. Rejoice

Chris Simcock more like jesters fantastic flavoring Makes anything you add it to 10 times as delicious (sweet things are the perfect level of sweet, spicy things are extremely spicy but without the afterburn, and adds the best flavoring to perfectly compliment any food to your tastebuds), to the point you cant think about anything but how tasty the food you ate is. provides disadvantage for wisdom rolls.... That sounds like a trademark crit role item

@@danieloceansmith3156 I do like it too because for an un-role'd person it still sounds great. A jesters fantastic flavouring.

It was sugar sprinkles laced with LSD.

I like to think that they were just really concerned that she was taking so long, like the players irl, but both can be true can't they

Caleb having a fire ball half ready to cast is my favorite part about that.

The way Beau is ready to just overhead smash with her staff is great

Even Cadeauces was ready to throw hands!

John k. I think the players thought Laura was just stalling, and didn’t want the stalling to go on forever.

@Jan Sitkowski I agree. Hags love deciet and trickery so no doubt it DID enjoy the company of a fellow trickster.

Naaaah I think it’s more like, never UNDERESTIMATE the trickster cleric!

@@khadijahdanielian3918 never undersestimate a cleric you mean.

@@matthewbrandt5053 truth

Or never give homebrew item to your player lol

Jester: this is a cupcake People: Dear god Jester: There's more People: No...

This is a bucket

@@kuze1930 I HAVE DONE NOTHING BUT TELEPORT BREAD FOR THREE DAYS!!!!

@@narmale DEAR GOD

@@kuze1930 seduce me!

That's what amazes me the most about this. Like, this is freaking improv, and yet this is thematically so fitting? Tricking a hag with a pastry? As Taliesin puts it after this, she Hanseled her Gretel.

This is some modern-day folklore shit

Same vibes as "You are already dead"

It's actually my PC wallpaper now!

*Giorno theme plays*

*NANI?!*

@@SentientHoodii literally a Jojo reference

magic might be a bit less long lasting than applying sword to face, but goddamn if it can't pull off some game changers on occasion.

@@shadowfiresword Yup, I agree completely 💪

What makes it terrifying is never expecting her to be so *devious* with it.

Let's not forget that she's mentioned it a few times and the only time she's used it is right here.

Any magic user from level 8 and beyond is ridiculously powerful

Awww 🥺

Matt: Wait…. Let her cook

​@@johnermactavish1162 matt after seeing what she did:this shit tastes FIRE

Yeah, definitely like the Other Mother for sure

reminds me of the gman from half life

Sounds like Mark Hamill.

Coraline plus Gorillaz.

@@nickdahl203 what if Mercer is actually Hamill in disguise?!

The traveler is so proud of her

I mean she *is* the cleric to a god of trickery, so like

@@zepaduse97 it's beyond pride. Artagan was so impressed by what she pulled off here that he actually came seeking for her wisdom. That moment when you're such a good trickster that a god of mischief actually comes to ask advice from you.

Don't forget Raven, Hermes/Mercury (or a young Apollo), Enki, or The Monkey King. And arguements could be made for Lucifer as well. :)

@@bdletoast09 when you actually think about it the Traveler is a creation of Artagan and Jester.

He’s taking notes

I thought the Traveler was running around in a panic trying to set things up for TravelerCon, so it's likely that he only noticed when Jester cast Modify Memory. He would be privy to the details of the spell, especially the content of the false memory. And that was enough to make him think that she could help him.

My pleasure!

Momo O’Brien?! You watch critical role?!

MO MO!???

Nah Laura is her own pantheon

Great old one

@@spiritscoffee6199 Defo Archfey with that level of manipulation

Hell, Cthulhu probably watched this and took notes! "Why did I never think of this?!"

Ur patron: HAGGLE THAT PRICE DOWN! HAGGLE THE-NO-THAT POTION SHOULD NOT COST THAT MUCH-HAGGLE

Yes!! And i feel like this is definitely a post main-campaign knot to untangle c:

This is indeed such a great art style for this scene!

Whether Isharni comes for them could depend on a number of factors. Remember that Vax made a bargain with a Hag early in their campaign (pre-stream) and Matt explained that it got to the point where she no longer felt it was worth trying to collect on someone that powerful. If the party stays out of her crosshairs long enough they could well get to the same point where it's more trouble than it's worth for the Hag to act on it. Especially if nothing gives her a reason to go back and question it.

@@TheKazragore but you gotta love the way she sent an inter-planer delivery being, to isharnai, to give her some cup cakes and you never heard of this poor thing again!!

@@melancam I always assumed once the delivery was done it just disappeared.

I am guessing it's this long because LIVE, on Twitter, the whole thing was about 25 minutes?

@Linotte Yeah, the framing of some of the shots were brilliant. Makes me wonder if @Rebel Arts is a filmmaker in addition to being a storyboard artist.

@@theGhoulman wait it was only 25 minutes!? Something like this would usually be about a couple weeks or at least a month! I mean the animation wasnt very fluid so that helped but it would normally take me about 5 minutesto draw each panel, not accounting for constant erasing

@@jawly_ He means 25 minutes is what the scene took for the Critical Role gameplay, with this animatic cutting out a lot of meta that what was said in the scene. A lot of pauses, outside game chatter, ect removed. I'm sure animating this took so much longer.

ITS SOO GOOD

Hags ARE Fey. They're evil Fey, much like redcaps and yeth hounds are, but Fey nonetheless.

@@darksev.6468 yup. They are amongst the most reviled creatures of the feywild. Pretty much all of the Faere (Artagans people) hold them in utter contempt but they are fey nonetheless. (With the exception of the Nighthags of course)

@@draochvar9646 also Dusk Hags but idk if those exist outside of Eberron.

@@darksev.6468 no

@@finnianquail8881 Yes but anything can exist in a homebrew world of your Imagination!

She still had to persuade the hag to eat the cupcake. This successful roll, and the subsequent failed resistance roll (stright roll, because the hag had advantage, cancelled out by the powder of deliciousness) made it happen. A perfect combo of mastery and luck.

This and the bathtub scene from c1 are my favorites.

The only scenes that come close to this one for C2 are the one where they fight Avantika while Beau scampers off to get the Plank King (especially the Wall of Fire that started it), and Caleb pulling out the Dodeca to keep the Bright Queen from killing the whole party.

Jester is such a gift that I actually find it hard to enjoy relistening to C1 as much because that energy isn't there. Still love Vox Machina but Laura Bailey struck gold with this character.

@@mrbonanza2606 yes the bathtub scene was so good. You can see the exact moment Laura thinks of it all over her face and Liam's disgust coupled with Travis jumping up and dancing... Magical moment.

Huh?! I knew I recognized that somehow!

@@lyn3325 it just totally brought me back to my childhood

Ohhh my god I had the anime but mostly just read the manga

wait WHAT?

@@m.orionyt yeah

Bonus trickster points for Not Technically Lying when she said “I gave her something very precious” Gave her memories of a pleasant evening and a delicious cupcake. Priceless.

I definitely thought someone was going to mention it. Matt almost did by mentioning people figure it out all the time or something like that but that seemed more like Papa Matt being like “Hey, don’t be ableist.”

She can just regrow her hands with healing spells.

@@Kalenz1234 She can’t, she even asked it and it’s implied that she won’t even be able to use prosthetics since it’s a hag’s bargain, those kinda things are sort of set in stone.

@@rimurutempest4945 You said if jester ever lost her hands. You didn't specify if she lost her hands with an entity which would prevent her from regrowing them.

@@Kalenz1234 because that’s literally part of the context for this video so I didn’t really feel the need to specify.

I agree with you. The amount of work that was put into this is so intricate and detailed, especially the characters, yet so simple using short one motion movements, except for the mouths, of course, it creates a unique style of animation, I LOVE IT.

@@benkayvfalsifier3817 It's not really a unique style of animation. In fact, it's not animation at all. It's called an Animatic (hence the title of the video). It's a preliminary form of animation whereby storyboards are taken and filmed in sequence. That's why the animation is almost stop-motion. It's literally a series of images being filmed. Think of it as filming someone flipping through a flipbook. Filmmakers and TV Show Makers use this tool to get an idea for what their ideas look like in motion so they have an idea of how to shoot it in real time when they get on set and behind the camera. These are also often used as a presentation to the studios when projects are pitched to them. That being said, this was VERY impressive. The level of detail is astounding. The quality of the characters is incredible. I would LOVE to see this cleaned up and polished as a complete animation. @Reber Arts has some amazing talent!

@@ForeverDegenerate Learn something new every day. Yes, it would be cool if it was fully animated, but the way it is now has a unique charm of its own.

"How do you delete something on the internet?"

​@@pooldude888 "I want another Cupcake!"

Now there's 8, Isharnal have some friends it seems.

Cem Dinçarslan “You fool! I have 73 alternative accounts!”

The beats of "okay...wait..what?" were great. He blue screened as he tried figuring out what Laura's game was and when it clicked he just had this look of sudden realization at the master level deception she was pulling.

Sometimes?! She's scary all the time but we don't notice because of how giggly and cute she is, and that same cuteness consumes us and blinds even powerful beings such as hags to her real intents, I feel like watching back from episode 1 just to have a different perspective on her actions.

@@bbittercoffee I kinda hope that someone seriously hurts jester or someone close to her, so she has a genuine desire to hurt somebody. Like capture and slowing killing someone with inflict woulds then bring them back with revivify just to do it again kinda hurt somebody. Because I can totally see jester losing it and wanting to make someone suffer.

@@walfman100 Well she was kidnapped for the slave industry, but that didn't change her much.. at least we can say that she genuinely wanted to hurt the guy that was bothering her mom. She was down and okay with him losing his hands to Fjord. That's got to mean something towards her morality. He didn't even deserve it much. For other cases I feel like it just happened that the ones she wanted to hurt were evil and killed off by the team.

@@lyn3325 she wasn't really around when she was kidnapped, she didn't come back to the story untill after everything was delt with. Also she has become significantly less naive, combined with her disillusionment with the Traveler, I could see her proper psych. Especially if someone like Trent was to kidnap her mother to try and pressure the Mighty Nien. But I doubt Matt would do that, even though he has expressed that he wanted to have a more politically focused campaign.

The Hags chuckles are on point. Old, powerful creature that lives in the swamp vibes be like

Also the pacifistic route. But sure, sailing is nice!

@@Halbam thanks, not an english speaker here and I fumble with words sometimes

I mean, I dont think I can play with a DM who wont let me try crazy edge of reality BS to break the game. DnD is a game about thinking outside the box and its best moments are when players actually pull something this special out their ass. Trick the hag with a cupcake and modify memory. Or examples from me, Use forge clerics ability to turn the bottom of a ship we need sunk into a tasteful dining room set. Polymorph the evil wizard and throw him into the bag of devouring to cheat a hard fight.

@@Halbam TAKE ME ON A JOURNEY, HAG

I had a campaign where one of the big villains was a fallen Angel driven insane by horrific trauma millennia ago, and instead of killing her, the party hunted down the goddess of time, convinced her to let them travel back, and REWROTE HISTORY so they could have an Angel friend.

Isharni "Is there anything else I can help you with, something you've always wanted" Jester "just your company" I can see that phrasing coming back to visit later

@@kenmann4074 amongst other things. But I'd give good money to see Artagan and Isharnai duke it out in a display of highest-grade fey magic.

TiliaCordata the contrast is just so good

I know nothing about DND but I feel like if I were the DM I'd fucking love if one of my players pull this on me

GO SIT IN THE CORNER AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU SAID!

I don't get it

@@penguinkingification are you familiar with Full metal Alchemist? If not, go give Brotherhood a watch, it stays true to the Manga

@@penguinkingification Believe me, you're better off not knowing. Stay innocent.

Too soon

Especially since it made it seem like the hag was leaving the spell, brillant. Just that extra dose of fear.

That just totally adds to Jester besting the hag. Fooled her so hard that she forgot to even open the door. Phenomenal

It just goes to show how absolutely she deceived the hag and Mercer simultaneously. Getting caught up in awkward moments of conversation made their clash of personalities feel more real while establishing the idea that the hag felt comfortable enough to act aloof in front of her. Truly a trickster she is, and deserving of her name as the Jester of this group. That level of charming deception is really only equivalized by bards, and I think Jester outperformed any of them twofold with this little stunt. I'd actually like to see Laura play a bard or just a charisma based caster in general after seeing this level of bargaining come out of her.

Thetgi For real. It’s always amazing when a player’s con confuses the DM themself.

Although tashas cauldron brings the prosthesis magical item from the eberon campaign, so losing an arm or leg can be compensated for, with the loss of an atunement slot.

@@tuseroni6085 weeeeeell ... you see, Hag deals are not that easy to circumvent, as was seen with the curse that was put on Veth. It is very likely any sort of magical prosthetic would simply cease to function when used by Jester. A deal made with a hag is as binding as a contract with a devil and there is almost no worming yourself out of it.

@@draochvar9646 veths curse didn't prevent her from disguising herself as a halfling. I suspect the prosthesis would still function.

Because Matt played along, like a good DM should. That and good rolls on her part.

Pffft

Sounds fancy, doesn't really ring true to me. She had far more harrowing moments on her journey.

You really seem to understimate Jester. Yes she behaves innocent, but grew up in a brothel. Very few places better to have a firm grasp of the worst in life.

@@WexMajor82 Understanding and seeing the world's evil is different from performing it, she may not have been a wallflower but her innocence was in herself. She saw horrible things yes but her innocence wasn't lost, just any naive beliefs she may have had. This however in my opinion was the last straw. In so handedly twisting and manipulating someone's very own thoughts and memories she harms the last shreds of her sheltered life. She embraces the world for it's horrors. She hands away her innocence, not her kindness.

@@joshuachildress1451 She didn't remove an important memory or fundamentally alter the victims worldview. The hag lost a source of misery-sustenance, but gained a fond memory and Jester avoided a scenario where at least one person would die. The fact that jester stuck to her promise of sending the hag cupcakes shows that she didn't lose her empathy.

Me too it’s the best scene from whole Critical Roll I also want Matt still speak her because he was so happy and so frustrated at the same time

Quick question, I just got this recommended and I can see this the person behind Vox Machina. Is this a different squad, D&D adventure, or different characters.

@@JayJayM57 it’s completely different than VM

@@uria3679 thanks

@@JayJayM57 Well, it is the same voice actors, just playing different characters. The blue girl "Jester" in this is played by Laura Bailey. That is the same woman who voices Vex'ahlia of Vox Machina. Eventually campaign one came to an end, these are the character from their next campaign "The Mighty Nein". This has already been greenlit by Amazon to receive an animated series for their own.

This and her big heal with the duplicates are two of the best things ever done in the show.