we need to talk about THAT moment in critical role c3 ep91. Also about Story over Plot. 

While it was a really cool thing to think of in the moment, don’t forget that the arcane core inside of FCG, and the possibility of it blowing up like other arcane cores we’ve seen, was a mechanic that was planted way back in Imahara Joe’s shop (I think?) I know it was set up and talked about before, and wasn’t just some crazy spur of the moment invention, I just forget exactly where.

Sounds like a great moment. Had a few like it in my own games. Those are the sessions people remember for years to come

Marisha said "Are you doing a blaze of glory?"

Matt made an offhand comment before all this went down about all that time going down the drain. Referencing the very real possibility of a TPK. I've been dming almost 30 years on and off. And I can tell you that in most situations like they were in, unless someone pulls a rabbit out of the hat, its a tpk. And for people like myself and matt, who homebrew maybe not EVERY detail but most details of our world, its a tremendous amount of time invested. Sam didn't just save the party, he saved the game for Matt. And I can tell you from painful personal experience as a PLAYER that its incredibly hard to make that choice to let your character go. I had to do it recently in the game I am a player in, and that was a character I had only lived with for about 8 months. Think about how long Sam has lived with FCG. If you don't think that is a very real and powerful attachment, you are very mistaken. All of that served to make that highly emotional moment. I think the reaction that shocked me most was actually Talesin's. He is normally pretty collected. To see him break completely did catch me off guard a bit. But you sometimes aren't even aware of how much your own character might mean to the rest of the people you play with.

Hey, thanks for this video! One thing if you need a feedback: I like how calm you are talking, it rings well in my ears :) I would love to hear more of your perspective than 3min short snippet vs 11min recapping. It is really interesting point of view - story vs plot and would love to hear more about it :) Cheers man!

She was most likely a Psi Warrior level 20 with the backpack allowing her to use Echo Knight features like unleash incarnate... this was probably the research from the luxon beacon... When the first faced her she was probably a level 15 Psi Warrior with the pack... hope this helps...

I also discovered CR during C2 and I've gone back and watched chunks of C1 before finally watching it thru and I watched all the one shots. I also struggle here and there with C3 but the Laudna episodes and now the current "Sam" episode, wrecked my soul. C3 has had epic moments but it isn't fluid greatness like C2 was. However, these people are first class and I will stick with them thru thick and thin, regardless. I was expecting Sam to do the "rage" thing but I was not expecting it this way and it hurt.

it makes sense. i had huge problem accepting the campaign 2 characters, as i started with Vox Machina. I had much better time adapting in 3rd campaign.

Otohan was an absolute monster on the battlefield. Offensively she was probably a CR20 or CR21 encounter... extremely deadly for a group of 7 level 12's. She had 4 attacks per turn, plus the ability to use a bonus action to make a 5th bonus offhand attack, plus 2 action surges, plus the backpack that spawns shadow clones, plus ascending and getting a higher AC and taking half damage from all attacks while ascended, which also refreshes both action surges so she will have 4 action surges total, plus 3 legendary actions per round of combat that she can use at the end of any players turn, plus 3 legendary resistances, plus Psionic Energy dice that let her do lots of stuff, plus a Supreme healing potion to destroy any hope of being able to end the fight quickly. plus they were fighting her in a confined space, which limited their ability to run away or use flight effectively to stay out of melee range.

12:15 I'm only guessing but Sam knew that he didn't want to turn red and attack his friends. I think he had been thinking about his core and how powerful it might be and in that moment it clicked - if i turn and attack "allies" can't I attack myself and therefore trigger my core? that's why he was so willing to spend that last stress on the turn before

I think you explained why people revere one campaign over others. I personally prefer C3 over the other 2 because I started with that one. I enjoy the other campaigns, but I like the C3 characters and NPCs the most, personally.

F.R.I.D.A. finding out is going to be heartbreaking

I'm generally not a fan of how people try to come up with their own version of warforged that are weaker than the original in one way or another because they are so fun to play as is but FCG's weakness was turned to quite the advantage in terms of roleplay and even combat in the end. I think he's dead for real not for the least because Sam Riegal always ends up playing two characters in every campaign.

They could bring him back via reincarnation. He would come back as “a real boy”

Soooo... Did I hear you correctly that you are going to make a video on how to play an Echo Knight/why Echo Knights are fun to play? 😉

you should do a vid on the way they came back the next week and did the switch at half time- THAT'S when people started dropping

One interesting way to bring him back is if they get in contact with "D" or even any of the Mighty Nein, they could take him to the Genesis Ward for a full on upgrade recovery. HOWEVER, to carry the weight of the sacrifice, he comes back as "Faithful Care Giver 2.0" and completely loses his memory and personality he developed during his time with Dancer. A full on Molly/Kingsly effect.

F.C.G is a Odahan killer!

I think the FCG sacrifice was completely improvised to save the campaign (Matt said it himself as he decided the damage on the go) The drama cry after that felt so cringe and fake and was only there to cover the charade… i am disappointed by where Critical role went…

The big bad was doing very well without any assistance. The exalted status made the fight nearly unwinnable (even in the forgiving nature of 5e compared to 3.5). The potion, that didn't exist until the GM deems it so, was a choice to make this a PC killer. There was no need for the potion. It could be argued that the exalted status was unnecessary. The story appeared to require what happened, which sours things for me. Still invested but not quite as much now.

For me Campaign 3 was so "world wide" in terms of Exandria that it felt hard to connect to. It's been non-stop to Ruidus since the beginning of the campaign and the deck has been so stacked against Bepls Hells that it doesn't feel as satisfying to watch the lose conflict after conflict. Whereas Mighty9 had minor victories all over that added up to a bigger win.

Spoiler warning - In their first fight with her, didn't she kill Orem, Fearn, and Laudna?

Not an actual play fan myself but get that bag

First of all, we don't really NEED for anyone else to talk about "that episode" that just aired. Secondly, we certainly don't NEED to know that you didn't care for C3 because "you fell in love" with C2. (I hate C2. It's a subjective thing.) Five seconds in and I'm already ready to click off the video. So sick of people bashing C3 because they "love" the Mighty Nein, a chaotic mess of a campaign.

I didn't understand why Matt was crying. What did he expect to happen? He had killed Chet. Most of the rest of the cast were doing death saves at some point. It seemed very likely that one or more characters were going to be permadeath. So why cry when one of the players does permadeath? Was it just that that wasn't the player Matt had in mind? And, in my opinion, he made Otohan OP. When they were actually close to killing her, she randomly pulls out a health potion that gave her 60+ heath? After she had already turned into an Exalted so that all damage was halved? I really wonder what Matt's plan was other than a TPK. Maybe Matt was sad that he no longer has FCG's arc with Aeor anymore.

You have my love, Brother, for your passion for the craft but Matt's tears were of joy that he was able to demo the narrative impact of Daggerheart's 'Blaze of Glory'. Also, the cast went in knowing something was going down. There was going to be a "No. I AM your FATHER!" kind of moment which is why they took that break an hour in to the show. I'll tell you this: I've been in games where the player(s) pissed about for two hours fumbling their way through the plot until finally getting to the big fight, which I knew was going to be CLOSE, and damn it, not twenty or thirty minutes in we don't all decide to get snacks and use the bathroom. This show is scripted with some improve maybe. How often do we get to see the actual rolls? I'm not hating on CR, it's a great entertainment, but it's staged and this episode was designed to do three things: demo Daggerheart's 'awesome narrative mechanics', contrast Laudna's return with a 'final death' of another character and tie up FCG's arc because they wrote him into a hole he was never going to get out of.

Character death in CC is completely inconsequential because Mercer doesn't possess the ability to let the PCs stay dead. I stopped watching them halfway through season 2 because there are no stakes, no real danger. The players know that, no matter what they do, MM will kiss their booboo and make it all better. Mollymauk doesn't count because that was Taliesin's decision and even that PC came back. So, FCG will be resurrected, guaranteed, unless Sam explicitly tells Mercer that he wants him to stay dead.