The Psychology of Self-Esteem - The Legend of Vox Machina: Scanlan's Ego - Therapist Reacts! 

Something about Scanlan: When making this character, Sam asked Liam what's the worst class/race combination and decided to play that. Name was from online name generator. And age was... 69. Scanlan was made as a joke character. But ended as MVP of the campaign.

I really want to know what Sam's reaction to this would be, I feel like he'd love it especially because he's playing a therapist like cleric character in the new campaign they're playing.

Scanlan is amazing because for so long he seemed like the only character who WASN'T horribly messed up from their past...until his past comes back and finds him. His adjustment and the way he wants to better himelf to meet it are things I'm really hoping get into the show.

I will say that the reason it's called "Scanlan's Hand" is because of copyright haha. In the original livestream, he uses the spell Bigby's Hand, which is an actual 5th edition D&D spell. But because of copyright stuff, they couldn't use that name for the show, so they changed it to Scanlan's Hand. love the analysis, just wanted to point out that behind the scenes thing!

That line after plucking on the lute, "Thinking for a rhyme with dead dragon, because I guess we are killing one" is the best single quote in the whole show

I don't wanna spoil the original show cuz I don't know how much they will delve into it on further seasons but Scanlan DOES have some issues with parental figures and also with grief and loss that push his "bravado" to that limit of over compensation. Hopefully we will get to see them in season 2 as he allows himself to show more fear here and there

Scanlon is a lot more complex then he lets on in this arc.

If they ever animate “a bard’s lament”… I really hope Georgia would review it. When that scene happened in game, it made me cry for for a week. Genuinely felt hurt watching it and made me realize how great of actors these guys are.

"Scanlan's HAND!" *Georgia jamming on a ukulele* Much like the plague mask for percy, your use of props for just a small segment really put a smile on my face.

I think the analysis of him having some narcissistic traits but not being an actual narcissist, but instead being someone who does care and do seek a more intimate relationship (but still enjoys a good lay for fun) is quite spot on. Certainly for the first season of the animation. :)

Scanlan is my favourite character, it reminds me a little bit to the "joke" in watchmen about the clown Pagliacci, making everyone happy but himself. Also, spoiler warning. The final boss battle, having Scanlan fight handicapped because he needed enough strength to beat the boss and save his friend almost at the same time(the group didn't know)... And finally watching Sam/Scanlan break 'cause he can only do one of those things but not the other... His best friend over (maybe) the fate of the world. I cried so much... Also his last Wish, again, using such powerful spell to give his friend a "temporary gift of reunion", losing the ability to cast the spell ever again, but with a smile of his face 'cause it was worth it.

in a much later arc, Vax will tell Scanlan that's he's lying to himself, and Scanlan will respond that that's the problem, he's an excellent liar. He's such a fascinating character because he is a narcissist and he is full of himself, but he's also genuinely heroic, and genuinely struggles with his role in the party from time to time. I don't think there was a misstep anywhere in the Vox Machina crowd, but even amongst them Scanlan stands out as a genuinely complex character. You did miss one of my favourite running gags though, of Scanlan trying to get lucky in Whitestone about once per episode, with the two strangers, with Cass, with the random half naked guy aftert the final battle, and he keeps getting cockblocked by someone or something. It's kinda funny.

I can’t wait for “A Bard’s Lament” to be animated. This will be one of the highlights of Scanlan’s character as we will see where and why the bravado existed.

Your analysis is damn near spot on for this "era" scanlan. Can't wait for your thoughts when a "certain individual" is introduced. I won't spoil anything Incase you haven't seen the actual campaign. But things about him really shine.

One of my favorite Scanlan moments was when he commissioned a portrait of himself immediately after they saved Whitestone and he introduced himself as the leader of the rebellion. He said "I'm here to commission a humble portrait of myself. You may not know him, but there was a folk hero in my hometown growing up, his name was Fabio. He frequently posed with windblown hair and an open shirt on a horse. I was thinking something like that. And also, I have this figure of Pike, she's a friend of mine, i'd like her behind me on the horse, arms around my waist, just looking super hot." And got this 20 feet by 6 feet painting to hang in the dining hall of their keep. And in keeping true to his character, he couldn't even remember what town he had just saved initially.

"I an trying to come up with a rhyme for dead dragon" I love the fact that Scanlan 's self absorbed attitude does melt away from him when he has to become a hero. Right down to running interference for the Whitestone he takes away his bravado and then pushes himself beyond his limits not for his own glory bur for the party and chosen family.

What I love about Scanlan is everything said here. He does everything he can to put up this front, he's the "Funny Guy," the "Romantic", the "Face of the Party" but as we see him grow with the party, those fronts break down and he starts to show how he really feels.

good job spotting the bread crumbs. imo scanlan has the most emotional character arc of the entire party

I think your analysis shows what a great job they did in translating the characters from hours and hours of roll play into a very short number of episodes. Something doable with a couple of characters, but doing with 7 is really hard. You really picked up on many of the things they were just laying down as foundation for future character growth.

One thing I'll say is that Sam Riegel (Scanlan's VA and creator) made it no secret in the Critical Role streams that Scanlan is in fact very interested in Pike, and no matter who he actually sleeps with, his feelings for her are of a different calibre. And according to the visual novel following their pre-stream adventures, Scanlan pretty much fell in love at first sight with Pike, which is so stinkin' adorable.

I think you'll enjoy what's to come in the future with certain events in the Vox Machina campaign.

I believe the biggest reason Scanlan puts on this façade is that he's constantly underestimated: by the virtue of being a bard (people often do not take them seriously at all), also because he's the part of Vox Machina (a crew of troublemakers and losers liked by nobody for quite a while), and, most importantly, because even his own companions don't take him seriously and make him the butt end of their jokes, and Vex is just outright mean to him. So yeah, he needs to show off and overcompensate. But he's not entirely wrong, because it's also his biggest power, which he uses to create a distraction. His "let me be annoying" is actually telling "I can do it with my skillset and being who I am, let me be me and I'll succeed, I am enough"

Just wanted to make a point of order that Scanlan's Hand is an animation-only thing. It's originally Bigby's Hand in the game but I imagine that's owned by WotC so they changed it for the show, most likely to avoid copyright issues. I don't think this changes your analysis much though.

It's this kind of discussion that makes me wish we knew more of what was retained from the initial campaign. Spoilers from Campaign 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scanlan is daddy issues personified. Never knew his dad and mom was murdered by a goblin attack. This leads him to a performing tour troupe where he develops a lot of the ticks we now know from him, some of which bit him in the ass from time to time. It's just tricky to know which ones will actually carry over into the show, though it could be dropped via bits of exposition like they did Percy.

This is exactly what I love about everything here; the animated show, the game, this channel and your analysis. There's the spoiler that everyone in the comments has already mentioned that really exposes the dimensions to his character. But there's also a couple moments at the very end of the campaign, with the bbeg, and a sacrifice Scanlan makes that brings Sam to tears that I don't think gets talked about enough. Matt Colville covers it well. And at the very end, Scanlan is the very first one - without hesitation - to volunteer to fight a god for his friend. That just brings me to tears just thinking about it. Sam's a shitster but he's my favorite. Thank you for doing all of this justice.

In terms of the Scanlan/Pike dynamic, I would've loved to hear your thoughts on the moment toward the end of Season 1 (I forget which episode specifically) when Scanlan flippantly asks Pike to marry him and she tells him, "Sure, yeah, let's do it right now" to mess with him, and how he reacts to that. So many layers of intimacy issues!

I straight up squealed when Pike said “Get away from *my* gnome!” It was so cute💜💜💜

2:55 *Stares in Campaign 2* Lot of Caleb spells to look at. 4:40 That is a really good point. He could have died soloing all that.

I will say, one of the downsides of the animated series is it doesn’t actually show how powerful Scanlan really is. He’s cocky with reason. For instance, in the Scanbo episode, everything he did was intentional. He knew what the potions did and most he cast as spells.

Scanlan's plan to distract Vedmire was actually from the OG campaign and yes, a lot of it was improvised. Scanlan's love for Pike is because he basically wants the love of a fellow gnome.

My favorite Scanlan moment is (hopefully) coming with Season 2.

I had the idea not sure where it came from but maybe this confident Gnome was just one of his faces he puts on maybe deep down he’s lonely and wants companionship

Its so funny to me watching the different reactions to Scanlan from Show Only Fans and comparing that to what Stream Fans know of him and his character and where that ends up going in the story. I cant wait for Show Only Fans to get to experience one of the most important aspects of Scanlan's character in season 2.

The best of Scanlan is still to come - both in being awsome / awsome moments and his character developing. Honestly he has more character development than most of the others in the original campaign, even if his arc is less in the forefront and less emphasized.

Some spoiler-y context here: . . . . . . . As a person who's watched the campaign, I never hypothesised that Scanlan may have his showmanship as a defense mechanism against the world in general, I only knew that he had started feeling inferior to his teammates and his subsequent life as the adventures progressed. And I just thought his showmanship was part of Sam's own nature, the desire to perform and the absorption of positive feedback from his fellow players and the audience, but after reflecting on your video and Sam as a person, I can start fully appreciating the amazing story that is Scanlan's.

Super excited for this. I can't wait until you do Pike :) Also ik you tend to do really good shows. But I think it would be cool to here you go over Reagan, and Brett the main characters from Netflix's Inside Job. Especially Reagan.

I’ve watched the show and the live stream. Watching your fresh take on the show is amazing. Knowing some of the background and hearing your analysis on Scanlan brought weird and welcome tears to my eyes.

Oh boy, I hope this bard gets the validation and recognition he needs from his party members, I cant imagine it going well if they dont treat him like a serious part of the team

I would love if you would to this kind of analysis for The Way of Kings. It’s a book rather then a tv show, but has major themes of mental disorders in major characters everything from desperation and DID to addiction and memory loss. It would be a major time commitment so I don’t have high hopes but it’s definitely worth the read at a minimum

Considering the last batch of Season 2 episodes that just came out (as of this writing), I really hope we get a “Scanlan Revisited” video. Then again, maybe it’d be better to put a hold on that until a certain other character gets introduced…

My favorite moment(s) of Scanlan/Sam are at the end of their twitch streamed campaign. So much heart to Liam/Vax..

Wow...it felt like I just watched Keyleth break down Scanlan's behaviour and IT WAS AWESOME!

I’d recommend watching the bards lament speech from the livestream. A perfect culmination of his insecurities coming to the surface.

So you mention that maybe Scanlan was neglected as a child. In the original live stream the only real info we got about Scanlan's family was that his mother was killed by goblins when he was quite young.

I’d love to hear your take on the “What is my mother’s name?” scene from the original campaign. They probably won’t put it in the animated show, because it happens right at the end of the huge plot arc that will most likely be the second season, but it’s absolutely heartbreaking and a top-notch character performance from Sam.

As someone who's been a fan since the podcast it was super interesting seeing how they handled Scanlan in animation. They definitely did a good job with him, his development was much more of a slow burn in the podcast but they did a really good job portraying some of his more subtle characteristics. At least from what I remember, it's been a while lol

Just a small thing about Scanlans Haaaand, in the live show that spell is called Bigbys hand. Buuuut they could not use that name because of copyrights, so they named it Scanlans hand. but your point still stands because later in the game he comes up with a spell Scanlans Magnificent Mansion. That is also a spell but in the live show he DID rename it after him self and if they get to animate it in later episodes, Oh boy does it make your point about him :D

So the Scanlan’s Hand bit is in two parts, 1 because this is based off of a DND campaign and they can’t used Wizard Of The Coast material as exactly as it says in the handbooks for copyright, they all decided to take the spell Bigsby’s Hand and make a quip out of it as Scanlan’s hand. 2 this allowed them to showcase the spell that Sam Riegel used the most when he played Scanlan and 3 this also it allowed them showcase how Scanlan’s magic worked well also showing his self aggrandizing personality. Scanlan is a deeply hurt and scared person, he puts on a big front to hide from what hurts the most. During the campaign we find out that Scanlan has a daughter Keylie (to his surprise) and meeting her makes him want to be a better person. During the 85th episode called A Bards Lament Scanlan and his daughter Keylie leave the group after Scanlan has been resurrected (because he died well fighting a dragon). This is what Scanlan said to the group as they are fighting to keep him around “You like me because I make jokes, and I play songs, and I give you a warm place to stay at night, and I feed you fucking chicken, and I heal you in battle. But you don't really care about me. Come on. Let's be honest with each other. You don't really give a shit about me. [ ... ] We traveled into the fucking nine hells to get Pike a set of armor. We went and battled a city of vampires so Percy could feel good about his name. We fought goliaths for Grog. We've traveled across planes of existence so you could fix your fucking daddy issues. But you've never done anything for me. Ever! You've never risked anything, you don't know me, you don't know anything about me. What's my mother's name? What's her name? Easy question. Died in front of me. Killed by a goblin. Biggest part of my life. What's her name? My father. Is he alive or dead? How old am I? Where's my fucking dog? [ ... ] It's fine. I'm just a little hungover from being dead, and I just have been thinking for a while, and, you know. Grog has Pike. Vax has Keyleth. Percy has Vex. But Scanlan has no one, and I had one chance at one real relationship with my daughter, and I feel like you've gone and fucked it up, too. Because you don't really know me, and you don't really know what my relationship is with her, and what I've promised her, or anything, really. And it's fine. When I met you all, I was just a funny little man playing songs, and that's all I'll ever really be. And that's okay, because I can take care of myself.” So no Scanlan isn’t a narcissist he is just scared of letting people in.

Well colour me impressed, I said I doubted there was a whole video worth of stuff about Scanlan, and I'm so glad I was wrong. Great stuff, loving this series!

its always so interesting to see what people get purely from the show and how it often gets pretty close to what u see in the campaign

From what I gather, his narcissism is very much as you state, a defense to convince others he's worthy, keep them slightly off guard when need be, and control what anyone sees in him. There is a fear that he's not good enough or doesn't deserve the praise and endearment for who he truly is deep down. Scanlan is my favorite character because amidst his incredible ego he's got some deep insecurities about who he really is and he plays the part of the shameless rogue because it helps him get through things, and then for a time he bought into his own BS, but the more time he spends with his friends the more he wishes he could show them who he really is...but...the time eventually comes where that conflict of always playing the clown/rogue for his friends and them not seeing he's sort of desperately playing up his part in hopes that SOMEONE reaches out and cuts through his nonsense to find out literally ANYTHING about him comes to a head, he turns to drugs as yet another vice (possibly on one hand as an escape and on the other just to see if anyone really cares), and then when the only response is "oh that's just Scanlan" he splits from the group because he feels that he's invested so much in these people and they really aren't his friends. Sam's portrayal of Scanlan is so deep to me that I feel like he set the bar for the others in future games when he finally lets the mask fall.

I think a missing part was scanlans fight with vedmire on the rooftop where he actually reveals some of the hurt and pain he has inside him

I can kinda relate to this guy great character analysis as always.

Thanks…I enjoyed your reactions and the deeper motivations. Blessings on your day.

The only reason they said scanlands hand was copywrite issue, he originally would sing Bigby's hand which is the name of the spell in the players handbook

Scanlan's hand is the verbal component of the spell he's casting. It's actually "bigby's hand" but due to copyright he couldn't say that.

The show doesn’t do enough to really get to know scanlan on a deep level as there are key parts from the show that really define him. I would love to see a break down of scanlans “what’s my mothers name” from the actual live stream. Brought a tear to my eye

I think to understand Scanlan even more, you should look for episode (or at least highlight) called 'Bard's Lament'. It's truly... heartbreaking.

This is great, just wait until they really stsrt going deep on his character and backstory. There is more to that gnome that has been revealed so far in the show, soooo many up and down moments, development of his character like layers of an onion. Can't wait for you to witness these moments 😊

By the way, in the compaign it was never "Scanlan's Hand", it was "Bigby's Hand" because that's the correct name for the Spell. Sam even said one time (as Scanlan) that the name comes from a man who invented it. He never was posessive about it. I think it's a simple problem of not being able to name spells by the actual name in DnD in the show, because laws and stuff. But still great analysis.

In a lot of ways, Scanlan’s more self sacrificing traits are that of his creator Sam. It is a hallmark of Sam’s characters to throw themselves into danger for their troupe.

I love your analysis' so much! I would love to see your take on the relationship between Vex (not Vax) and Keyleth at some point! How she is trying to push Keylith away before she "steals her brother" and leaves Vex alone... *Chef kiss

This is a great examination of the character of Scanlon as portrayed in “The Legend of Vox Machina”. I think those that came to the show having seen the live streamed game play have a deeper understanding of him. Mostly because more is revealed later in the campaign, but also they had to cut a lot of the story out to fit the length of the season. Scanlon very much uses his larger than life persona to keep people from getting too close to him, classic intimacy issues. I know it’s a huge commitment, but definitely watch Campaign 1 of Critical Role, it’s like reading a large multi volume fantasy saga as opposed to watching the TV/movie version.

I agree for the most part. The Scanlan‘s hand was originally Biggby‘s hand in the original series. I feel like that sort of thing has more to do with avoiding copyright infringement‘s then character traits. It’s still funny though.

many times I think that my predictive capacity prevents me from being able to approach people and I don't feel comfortable with what I don't know about myself. I am a mystery to myself and that scares me.

This was fun, Scanlan is one of the most deep characters I've found, but not until a lot later episodes in the DnD Show at least.

So the interesting thing about Scanlan's Hand is that isn't what he called it in the original source material Critical Role. The spell is called Bigby's Hand and that's what he used to sing. However, licensing became an issue (presumably) so instead the writers decided that he would say it's his own hand. I think it's a perfect and interesting choice.

the spell is called bigby's hand, but because thats licensed by wizards of the coast, for the series they had to change it.

I feel like the limited scope of the series doesn't allow the viewer to really understand any character let alone Scanlan. For those of us who watched the campaign, Sam vocalizes Scanlan's life goal at the intro and until you get far into the campaign you never really get who he is ... that is until he says "What's my mother's name?"

You’re so awesome, I wish I had a therapist like you😂🙏🏼

In his back story is thathis mother was killed by goblins when he was Yung and he got in to showbiz with a traveling Troup. So you were close on the lack of family in his life.

Scanlan thinking he's the best is actually quite ironic. Sam (his player) set out to create the "worst possible DnD character" by asking what people thought the worst race (gnome) and class (bard) would be. He's was literally created to be terrible but thinks he's the tits.

No spoilers, but Scanlon’s character dev arc through the CR campaign was intense and, at times, heartbreaking. Looking forward to how this plays out in the next seasons of the animated series. Curious to hear your updated thoughts after the end of the next season.

My recommendation is if you really want to get more about Scanlan before his Story arch comes up go back to the first few streams of Crit role cause you can find the backstory he puts out, that way you get more then the very little of him we get in season one here :o

In the current campaign, he actually plays a robot cleric that basically functions as a therapist.

Tks for the video ! I really like having your input in Vox Mochina. I watched the original game of Dnd with the cast so my perspective comes from there, where the characters are more easily mixed with the players concerning their intentions and such. But I must say that your lecture of Scanlan is fairly right. The only detail I would mention is that the spell he uses is called "bigby's hand" and I'm pretty sure they had to change it for copyright reasons. So he doesn't originally name the spell after himself, but nethertheless the analysis still stands right as he projects this high self-esteem whereas further in the story it becomes transparent that it is indeed a façade ;)

I think the funniest thing is that Scanlan's Hand is actually called Bigby's Hand, so even the original spell was dripping with narcissism. More of Bigby's spells: Bigby's forceful hand, Bigby's interposing hand, Bigby's clenched fist, Bigby's crushing hand, and Bigby's grasping hand. Very hands on wizard. Very handy to have around. Gotta hand it to him.

I can not wait for the season 3 or 4 update to this

Scanlan’s songs were something I adored in campaign 1, he was and is a character who can always make you laugh or at least crack a smile! Sam plays him so beautifully, making him into this lustrous, funny, and caring gnome who adores his people. Scanlan Shorthalt really changed the game for bards everywhere and I can’t wait to see more of his shenanigans.

Actually when he's screams Scanlans hand, its because they name of that spell in D&D is Bigby's hand, but they couldn't use that name without Paying through the nose to Wizards of the Coast

This is kind of a trip to watch because It's only based on the TV series which is the earlier part of Campaign 1, and I know more about the end of the campaign. For the Scanlan's hand thing, I guess that meaning could have been added into his character from the name change, but it's actually just copyright because they couldn't use Bigby's Hand since it's owned by Wizards. Similarly Pike has the Everlight instead of Sarenrae because it has a license through Pathfinder, but yeah, practical actual reason aside I guess it does add an extra layer of narcissism?

Especially where he's at in the campaign at this point.

No way. Finally, IS HERE!

Scanlan strumming a tune is no different to the rest of the team sharpening their blades in preparing to fight, but the group don't realise this when he does it after the village is attacked and they see the dead children.

Always a plesure, and no spoilers but can't wait for future video from you about the legends all the charactera are way complex evan the "side" character or unspecified ones. Ps been sharing your videos with critters on Facebook and stuff though I would let you know. :)

Fantastic video! Have you watched the campaign? Or is this analysis entirely based off the animated series? There are loads of nuances to every character that weren’t able to be explored in 12 episodes.

“Maybe his parents” Emotional damage

Love you Videos Fellow, Habs Fan ? My favorite Scanlan moment in the Series is "" I still Finished'' LOL In the Game, THE Mic Drop at the Druegar Queen, Savage !

Watch Magnum PI for a day and I miss your video...Thank you..love that shirt

3:38 "Maybe his parents didn't show him enough attention ..." Well his mom DEFINITELY didn't, following that one goblin invasion ..

Oh boy, the way the rest of Scanlan's story plays out, I won't spoil it and if you don't know, plz don't spoil it for yourselves!!! 😃(in the extreme hopes and likelihood we'll all get to see it played out animated now, too!) Every character story arc through the campaign is just beyond, something so rare in what entertainment produces! The depth, changes, revelations!!! Scanlan... There will be things that happen that will FLOOR you. There simply is NO predicting what is ahead, the closest I could see would be through analyses like these, tbh! Take them, imagine unscripted reactions based on these traits! Sit back and love the show!

Watch the streams from campaign one. Towards the middle to end there’s a huge amount of character development.

I can't wait for the Pike video!!!!

I LOVE HIM !!!

Can you do being Erica Georgia it’s a good show it’s actually about therapy The premise is that a therapist allows a young woman to go back in time to fix her biggest regrets and make her life better It’s a really good show Hope u see this

I hope they go into Scanlan's backstory a bit more in Season 2, so you can find out just how right you were. VERY well done analysis.

"I love it every single time he shouts out Scanlan's Hand but, don't you know those people that always have to name something after themselves, or remind people of what amazingness they did" I would love to get your analysis of Lion Sin of Pride Escanor, from Seven Deadly Sins, having three special moves. Two of them are named after himself, and both of those involve dropping his weapon (which was literally blessed by the sun) and using his bare hands to kill you. Escanor is my role model for self positivity, because he is absolutely positive that no one is better than him, which people mistake for arrogance until they realize he is correct.

Also scanlan's hand is actually supposed to be Bigby's hand but because of copyright issues with Wizards of the Coast they had to change that just something for you to look up

Without spoiling anything scanlan is the most beautiful time bomb in C1 that has an amazing blow up with the groups dynamic. Out of all of vox besides maybe keyleth he has the most character growth for sure. Some insight into the naming the spell after himself thing its a common troupe in DnD for mages to name their own spells , the og spell in dnd 5th he used in the show was called bigbys hand which was named after a player in the first place which was a direvitive of mordens hand , etc , etc. Still spot on it being a narscist trait regardless though.

Hoo boy... There is a lot more to Scanlan than gets show in the cartoon series. Most of the other character tend to wear their hearts out in the open, so you get a really good idea of their pains and emotions. They didn't really go much into the twin's family trauma, but you get a good idea on everyone else. But not Scanlan. He's like an ogre, he has layers. Sure on the outside it's loud, boisterous and a pervert. But deep inside he's all of those things and a lot more that doesn't get revealed until well after this campaign arc. A big part of it is his player, Sam Riegel, really loves playing the class clown and drawing attention, making people laugh and grown at his antics. So he puts that in his characters. But he also fills them with a lot of depth, emotion and trauma that you don't get to see until you start peeling back those layers. So people who only know him through the Legend of Vox Machina are only getting a part of his character and make up.