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Transcript

Why The Legend Of Vox Machina Works As DnD TV (Season 1) · Project Geekology

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Loots tuned?
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_03: Tankers full?
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_03: Pants optional?
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_03: Then gather around, you glorious collection of nerds, knaves, and people who definitely shouldn't have read the quest briefing.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to Project Ecology Episode 169, where today we're raising a toast to the most wonderful dysfunctional band of heroes ever to accidentally save the world, Vox Machina.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_03: They've slain dragons, toppled tyrants, punched gods in the face, and somehow still managed to make room.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: Every tavern owner regret offering them a room.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: They're proof that friendship isn't about being perfect, it's about finding people just as chaotic as you and convincing them that your terrible ideas are actually destiny.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_03: And with that, I welcome you guys to the show.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_03: I'm Rich and uh I couldn't do this alone.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: I need my merry band of men and women here.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm gonna pass it off to Me, Dakota.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_04: I'm one of the other hosts, and joined as always with Anthony.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I like that that intro.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: That was good.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was nice.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: You know I was just trying to channel my boy Scanlon.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, Scanlon.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yes, we have to square this square off with our fourth host.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, I'm Jenneth.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_04: Jeneth guys, we're covering Legends of Vox Machina.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_04: The Legend of Vox Machina season one, which has 12 episodes and not ten.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: I said eight actually originally.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: My bad.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_04: No, that's okay.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Jenna and I watched the first ten episodes of this.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_04: We did really good, guys.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and then we realized, oh, that's not the end of the season.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: And then we realized, oh, it's ten minutes until the time we record.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_04: So we are running off of recapped knowledge for the last two episodes.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_04: So bear with us.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_04: There is a bear in this show, actually, so that's that's a plus for us.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: The bear kind of like disappears at the end there.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: It really did.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they kind of makes no sense.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: You have an armored bear.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: What are you doing?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: Trinket, right?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's yeah, trinket.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_04: And they they tell the bear it's not safe for you.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_04: He has armor.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_04: He's a bear.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: In in their defense, like when I play DD, I always hide my dog shambles.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: He's a wolf pup.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like I always make sure shambles go somewhere safe.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_04: Look, you need your pets to shred things.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's the whole thing.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: Shambles isn't big enough yet, though.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: When he gets bigger.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_04: Guys, uh before we jump into the legend of Vox Machina season one and all the ins and outs that uh go into this series.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_04: What have we been up to?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_04: I think Jen and I should start this one because this is a momentous last show for a little bit for us, at least.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_04: I'll probably be back sooner rather than later.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_04: But we're definitely not recording next week because Jen is gonna be going into labor next week.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm 39 weeks pregnant, and next week seems like it's it.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Seems like everything's happening.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: So that'll be that.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_04: We'll have a screaming baby soon.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: He's gonna join the pod and just scream every time I disagree with someone.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_04: That's okay.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_04: I don't disagree with anyone.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, no, we we've uh been doing good on our ends.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_04: I've continued my reading of the eighth book of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_04: Almost done.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_04: I'm a little past the halfway point around like 60%.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_04: And I will say, I think I'm a little bit more critical of this one than I have been of some of the others.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_04: At least in terms of the the gravitas in the story, because the seventh book is so epic in nature, like it's a without going into spoilers, a massive war.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_04: And then the eighth book is the the different crawlers are pitted against each other in races, you know, like they have to build like uh cars and stuff that they race each other in.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_04: It's like that old cartoon to the death.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_04: Are you talking about speed racing?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, it was like the Hannah Barbera thing where they used to wacky races or something.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: It was supposed to be like planes, trains, and automobiles, but it was oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, I do know what you're talking about.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, some people choose biological mounts and others choose vehicles.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_04: And it's a crazy story.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_04: But I think because the last book was so epic, I'm a little exhausted with where I'm at in the story because I'm I'm just reading them back to back, and it feels like this book is like resting as opposed to the craziness of the seventh book.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_04: But anyway, that's just my thoughts.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you guys are nowhere near that, so I can't really get into it.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: The only person I can really talk to about it is my mom, for some reason.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_04: My mom has pretty much caught up to me.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_04: She's at the end of the seventh book now.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_04: She knows um how crazy this story is, and her favorite character is the decapitated head of a sex doll named Samantha.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_04: That's my mom's favorite character in the Dungeon Crawler card series.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_04: She has exquisite taste.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_04: Exquisite.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_03: Fantastic, really.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I'm gonna throw Did we have anything else going on?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_04: What else is going on?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_04: Nada.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_04: Nada.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_04: We'll throw it over to Anthony.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_04: How you been?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: I've been good, and um we'll miss you all on the podcast.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: I know that it's not forever, but I know that you know you have to take your time, you're gonna be a new parent, so you know, you gotta uh take care of that and uh work on that dynamic.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I think Rich and I can probably get some stuff going.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, this upcoming weekend as of recording uh the 10th through the 12th, there'll be Florida Supercon.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be going again this year on a press pass.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you all for uh listening to us.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for there being enough you all for us to get press passes.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Much appreciated.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: Thank all four of you.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_04: That's all it takes for Supercon.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_04: That's all it takes for Supercon.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, no, I'm I'm pretty stoked for that.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: I um I mean you know you know how I am.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be Hayden Christensen's gonna be there.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be close by to Hayden.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Rosario Dawson is gonna be there.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be uh some of the casts of the of Daredevil, uh Vincent was gonna be there, but he had a dropout last minute, but Charlie Cox will be there.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Debran Wool will be there.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um the actor who plays Foggy, I think he's gonna be there.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm sorry, he's everybody else was way more A-list.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: He was in Mighty Ducks, you have to understand.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_03: He was in the Mighty Ducks movie.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: So like Oh, you know what?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now that you mention it, I can picture him.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: I I didn't even like I didn't realize that I remember that, but like now I see his face, but like way younger.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, so I think that'll be fun.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: I always love going to uh conventions and checking out all the the random items that people bring or or they make, so and panels.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: I like I want to check out the panels and and whatnot, but I'm gonna pass it over to Rich.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh well I'm on summer vacation, so uh life is grand.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: I barely know what day it is.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_03: I uh I got Lego Batman, uh the dynasty, the the Legacy of the Dark Knight, and uh yeah.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_03: I thought it was gonna be the length of the Lego Star Wars, like full franchise.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like the they came out with one that has that covers all nine movies.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I thought it was gonna be more like that, and unfortunately, I already hundred percent it and platinumed it on PlayStation, so my wife walked by and she's like, You're not almost done, are you?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, No, look at all the stuff I have to get, and then I got it all that day.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: So it's fantastic.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: If you're on the fence about it, get it.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna replay it.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_03: There's like a a dark night mode where it's much harder to play, so I'm gonna give that a go.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: But I got all my collectible, like my collectible itch out of the way.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's fabulous.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it the way they play with the Batman 89, they did the whole museum scene with the whole song and dance.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: I love love and they have two Jokers.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_03: They have the 89 Joker, and then they have the current Joker, and they don't really say anything about that, and you're totally fine with it.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, it's a fantastic game.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I am on a mini vacation up here in upstate New York.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: We're a little place with a pool, so we've gotten to swim a lot.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: I unfortunately did not beat Dakota in the reading of Dungeon Crawler Carl.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_03: I uh got halfway through book two and I got Batman and there's been lots of soccer.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: That means you also didn't beat Dakota's mom.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: I know.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm really upset.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna try to take advantage while the baby comes out and uh just read a lot more because I know because I know that because I know Dakota is gonna be at home and he's not gonna be listening to the audiobook.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that I'll be able to catch up.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_04: I'll I dare you.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_04: Go ahead.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: Buddy, my I'm listening I'm I'm dropping my son off on the 12th for 12 days, okay?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: 12 days of no sun, no work, and no New York Mets, because they're gonna be the all-star breaks coming, so there's no baseball.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: All I have is books.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_03: And a little bit of soccer.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's true.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, nor Norway is my new team.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_04: Norway's my new yeah, Norway's my new team.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think everyone's pulling for Norway, unfortunately, as of recording.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: They all have a stomach bug, don't they?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, that is true.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: It sounds like they're gonna they're a little under the weather.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm concerned.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: But uh, you know, unfortunately, as of recording, France beat Morocco, uh, depending on your sensibilities.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: So the field is shrinking and it's a lot of the heavy Titans.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: I'd love to see somebody upended.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I thought Egypt got uh hosed a little bit.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: That was actually a bit crazy.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: They like they were winning until the end.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: I think the only region Austin is very upset about this, actually.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: My brother.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, of course.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: Dakota's brothers, Austin is very upset.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: He said he had to shut the game off because he couldn't he couldn't take the corruption.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, that was me during the US game.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: I was so tilted.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: I said, what is wrong with these people?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: I said, this is literally how everybody imagined the US would play.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: They waited till the round of 16.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_04: I found it quite fitting that Canada, the US, and Mexico all got eliminated at the same time.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_04: On the home turf to the city.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was literally thinking that same thing.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, all the hosts got they just got booted.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_04: At the same time, pretty much, within like two or three days.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_04: It was glorious.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_04: Not in a good way, but you know, at least it was fitting.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: I felt bad for Mexico.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_04: We went out together.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Getting like beaten in their own home by England.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: Colonization strikes again.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: Get better.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: Not fun.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_03: Are you are you okay, Rich?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_03: I was very upset about the Mexico loss.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: I will not lie.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: I really thought they were gonna go further this time, but uh looks like it's back to the drawing board.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe Italy will make it next time.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: Who knows?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: You know, who knows?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: The world power that has like one like three to four World Cups.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it might be nice if they make it again, but or Cuba.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_03: Buddy, that ship has sailed, that raft has sailed.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_03: There's no Cuban soccer team that makes it to the World Cup.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: I root for Cuba in the World Baseball Classic, right?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_03: I do.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_03: I root for Cuba in the World Baseball Classic.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: That's it.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: Boxing and baseball.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: Alright.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Damn, son.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_04: Guys, let's talk a little bit about our title discussion for today.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_04: The Legend of Vox Machina.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_04: Season one.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_04: Anthony, you're making a whole bunch of hand gestures.
• 11:34
  unknown: What are you doing?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_04: Guys, this was really fun.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_04: And also like bizarrely like gory.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's weird seeing gore in a cartoon.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's what makes it so much more almost offensive, you know?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_04: Like, you're used to seeing gore in something like The Walking Dead or The Last of Us or something like that.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_04: It's it doesn't even like Fallout, it's a very gory show.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_04: You don't think about it because it's live action, it's very like realistic-ish gore.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_04: But when it comes to the explosive colors of animation, it's actually like crazy.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_04: It feels worse somehow.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know, I don't know how to describe it, but anyway, yeah, it was it was it's a very funny show.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um well, I mean, you did watch Invincible, and Invincible's got some gore too.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_04: But I will say Invincible doesn't have as good animation.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_04: Like I was noting the the quality and animation between the two projects, and Invincible is very almost like cheaply made, I think.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_04: It looks cheaper, like it looks like more mass-produced.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_04: This seems like it was more handcrafted and a lot more little details.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: This one's got so the thing that that this show has going for it is I mean you you know what this is, right?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Vox Machina, that this is Critical Rolls first campaign.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: So when it when they first started doing their streaming journey back in like 2015, this was their campaign, Vox Machina.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: But what once they started streaming, I think they were like two years into the campaign.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: So the first season is almost a bit of a catch-up, and then I think the rest of the series is kind of catches up to where the actual campaign itself was when they started streaming.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Rich, there is uh some voices that you should uh recognize that are in it.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: What do you call it?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Pike does Ellie from The Last of Us.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: And um Vex does Abby from The Last of Us 2.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: So they're both they're the yeah, they're they're both like honestly, so that whole group is a group of voice actors.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so that and they essentially they did a D group.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: It be it blew up.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: They've done they're on their fourth campaign now, and so now they started animating it.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: They're four seasons into Vox Machina.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: They just dropped another one for uh their other their second campaign, Mighty Nine, which is like their it's actually Mighty Nine is actually their most popular of all of their campaigns.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then I I'm assuming that they'll do the same thing with Bell's Hells, which is campaign three, and then eventually campaign four when once they get for I guess far enough into it, or when they complete it.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, no, this is this is pretty much like um it's uh it's a passion project for them, and you can kind of see that and they have fun with it.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: Scanlon, it who is voiced by Sam, he always does the most outrageous characters.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: One of my favorites is in campaign three, and he plays as like this like robot called Fresh Cut Grass.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: I uh it took me three episodes, by the way, before I was like, I think this is D D-ish.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like I got um what is that what is that movie we watched that was literally on our monk thieves, right?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: I'm watching it this and I'm like, this gives me I'm like, you've got a bard?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: You got an archer, you got like a guy who's a tank.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, this is like a a like a party.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: Uh like it's got all the the different players that you would want in a party.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, oh, so now I didn't look into it at all.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: I I just picked up on I was like, oh, okay, cool.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_03: And uh look look, give me a short little dude with with a man bun, all right, some funny phrases.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_03: He's kind of crazy.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I love him.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_03: I love Scanlon to death.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_03: Honestly, like, okay.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_03: I if it's not if it wasn't weren't for him, I don't think I would have been pulled in as quickly.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_03: Uh like Percy's story is interesting and everything, but my man Scanlon just doing Scanlon things.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_03: Like just even at the end, like at the end, everything's good, they've won, and suddenly he just swerves you and he just sees a guy with no shirt, and he's like, Oh, what's going on?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: And he goes, and like they pull him away and they're like, You're we just saved these people, we're not gonna expose them to your gonorrhea.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I just I um you know, I just when he hit on the zombie.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, he is the absolute best.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like, just anybody around, nobody safe.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that was good.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Sam is he has like real fun with his characters.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: You can tell.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: I love it like when he sings like his like little songs and stuff.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Especially the distraction one at that dinner.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, that was absurd.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_04: I liked when they when he like lifting them up over the pit of acid, and he's just like, You're too heavy.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_04: He's like, wait a minute.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_04: Heavy?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he pulls out a pick and starts doing like heavy metal to like lift up his uh his musical paralysis.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_04: I thought that was fun.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and he's very much like Yeah, overall I think he's a fanfave.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Scanlon, Scalin is a definite fanfave.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_04: Anthony, I got a question.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_04: So, Critical Roll, it's a podcast series that follows a group of voice actors who are going through dungeon campaigns, dungeons and dragons campaigns.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_04: They have their own setting.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_04: At least in this one, is it's Taldore, is the world that they've created.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_04: In their other campaigns, are they in different worlds?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_04: Do they occupy Taldore again or is it completely different?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: I don't remember if it if it's a ma I I'm pretty sure that they do.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like one is called Marquette.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's another that I think that's in I don't know if that's in campaign three.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: I don't remember if that's in campaign three.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm pretty sure that yeah, like each setting that they that they're in is essentially like their own like world that they obviously like base all its D rules.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um they actually have created their own game system called Daggerheart, which uses 2D twelves instead of D20s.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm interested to see if they decide to do anything with that and maybe you know expand upon that.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that'd be cool.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, for for the most part, to like go back to answer your question.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_04: No, I did look it up.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_04: All three campaigns are set in the same world, Xandria, but on different contents.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's like one of their smaller campaigns, uh, Xandria Unlimited.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: They have one of those.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: This campaign is interesting because it's usually uh Matt Mercer who does the DMing, and this time he's actually a player character, and somebody else is DMing.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: So and um for those of you that don't or a lot of people know who Matt Mercer is.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: He does he's done a lot of voices.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: He does um McCree slash Cassidy and Overwatch, he does the English voice actor for Trafalgar Law and One Piece, just tons of World of Warcraft characters, definitely.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: So he he's been in a lot, they're all like industry veterans.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's why like I like a lot of people like watching them because it they're essentially watching them do their job, but like not with an animation in front of it.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you're seeing them actually act this stuff out, like in not in person, but you know, live action.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_04: Very cool.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I I've watched uh a couple of the the earlier stuff with um I think it was Mighty Nine where Matt Mercer was DMing, and that was really cool.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_04: But that's not what we're talking about today.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_04: So I I kind of like that we're thrown directly into the story, and it's not the story that you think is gonna be like the encompassing story for the season.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_04: Like you go into this uh where they're chasing after a dragon, you know, like they're given a hint that something needs to happen for them to make a lot of money.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_04: And they go on this quest that turns out to just be a side quest in their overall arc for the season.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_04: And let's talk a little bit about like their early plight, because they're obviously an established group of characters, they're they're a team that knows each other's ins and outs a lot.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_04: And I kind of appreciate that they cut out a little bit of the backstory of them like learning or like meeting up and and like forming the group, and they just jump into the action.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_04: But I also appreciate the use of flashback information when you need it.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not a I'm not a huge fan of flashback material in general, but I feel like they especially with the Percy stuff, I thought that was really well done.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_04: That just like the the cherry-picked stuff that they gave you beginning like before every episode.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_04: I thought that was well done.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_04: But uh sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_04: What what did you what did we think of the initial twist on who the dragon really was?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: I was like frustrated because I thought that it was the girl Laura, I think is her name.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: Lady Laura or something like that.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_04: Elora.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: Alora.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I thought it was her, mostly because she looks like Daenerys Targaryen and was wearing blue, which is the same color that the dragon was.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I also thought that was gonna be like a bigger arc.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, man, they made this like really predictable.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's okay so I didn't expect that to resolve so quickly.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then when it resolved really quickly and I was completely wrong, I was like, Oh, okay.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: The this is nice.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like it was kind of nice to be wrong and just for that not to be like this whole mystery the whole season long.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I fell for the bait and I thought it was uh the creepy guy.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_04: Me too.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Dakota thought I was like, that's too big it was yeah.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, he's too blue.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was I looked at him and I was like, oh you know, Snape over there.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: It's gotta be him.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_03: So I was convinced.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: I actually also said that to Dakota.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, it's like Snape, like you can't think that's it.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I I actually liked being he was essentially Ebony Maul.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, they they give him that ebony maul kind of vibe.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: Not the personality, but like the look kind of reminded me of um kind of like his style.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_04: I agree.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: I was surprised to see that Dragon Dude was voiced by David Tennant.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_04: Kind of a big Captain Creed, he had a very like Scottish brogue, uh a very thick Scottish brogue, and I'm just like, it sounds like David Tennant, but it's so deep.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_04: And I didn't I didn't look it up until after like the the character was defeated.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_04: But we ended up going into like the cast list because you know there was a couple voices that sounded really familiar, like Ellie from Last of Us, like that that's the one where I was just like, I gotta know.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_04: Because Pike's voice is so unique.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_04: It's like hearing Dave Batista and anything, like you know immediately it's Dave Batista.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, so we looked that up and and David Tennant.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they pulled a big cast member of the city.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_04: Doctor Who alum is uh voicing a big a big character, or at least not not a huge character, but like he was physically large.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_03: Did you almost feel like uh speaking of Dave Batista?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know, Grog Grog was just so Draxy to me that it felt like like I the one thing that I and maybe again I didn't know it was a campaign, right?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: So that also right, but I I was like, oh well that's Puck from from you know uh Shakespeare, right?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: Scanlon, you know, and I was like, well that's Drax the destroyer, you know, and then I was like Vex is kinda like like Legolas, like he's the archer with the sharp uh ears in the group.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like there was just a couple of things that I was um I noticed were tropey, but I forgave it.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like it I don't know, I I think it it it was generally unique enough.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_03: Like Grog to me still is like just a di a dumb Dave Batiste, uh a dumb Drax, like an even dumber.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like Drax is literal, grog is just dumb, right?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like he's like I don't know, one of the Kelsey brothers, you know, after all their concussions.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it just felt like like not the most like he he's just like a like a big dum dumb.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_03: It um I thought that was but then he like he's just so dumb and he embraces it.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, Yeah, grog dumb, you know, like that I just was like, okay, cool.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_03: Like and I like how like how easily he can be, you know, like it's like you shot me.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_03: And he's like, Yeah, thanks for saying it's like, oh, no problem, you know.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_03: Like he just so quickly moves on from anger at the same time.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_03: But uh yeah, no, I I did notice that even Kiki uh or Keeleth, I I can't put my finger on it, but reminds me of somebody somebody from you know some sort of action thing that I've seen.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh to me, I feel like she's supposed to be is it Keely from Firefly?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: Is that the the character's name?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: Keely?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I'm saying?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_04: Uh yeah, I think it's Kaylee.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_04: Kaylee.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: Kaylee?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's who she kind of reminded me of, but then as the show progressed, she changed.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: And she wasn't really like that.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: It was just like the first couple episodes that I thought that.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: But then as like she got more and her anxiety just like kept increasing, and I'm like, no, she's not that character.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because that character is like the girl from Firefly was like just very confident, and that's not Yeah.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_04: I did get the Drax the Destroyer connection, and if the timing is correct where Critical Role began this in 2015, then it would have been the summer after, or like shortly after, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 1.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_04: So there was most likely some unconscious or conscious effort to make a Drax-like character because it's just fun to have a Drax-like character.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_04: So I didn't have a super big problem with that.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_04: I think he visually looked so much like Drax though, that I I did keep thinking that in my mind I kept seeing Drax.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um which is weird, but anyway.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um I do feel like when you create a DD character, especially like at the beginning, you kind of base them on either a person or a character that you may know.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: For me, when I made my character, I was like, I had to have kind of like a foundation, because I'm not like a writer, I'm not creative enough to come up with like a completely unique individual.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was like, my in my mind, I didn't say this to my group, but my character was kind of like April Ludgate meets Jack Sparrow.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like with Jack Sparrow's morals, but April Ludgate's like kind of Demeanor.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, demeanor.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: And then it changed, you know, as you play the character more, you learn the character, and now she's completely different, you know, than how she had started.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: But like I needed something to kind of like other characters to kind of latch on to as like an anchor.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_04: I played a character that's kind of similar to Pike, actually.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's uh I would say my character is probably a mix of Grog and Pike, where I became a a dwarf that was in a the Order of the Silver Flame, which is like a Pike's religion where it's it's very light-based.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_03: Where in the street is you lost all your followers, though.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_04: That's a long story.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_04: As we exited, we exited our DD campaign recently, and like brief like temporarily in preparation for the baby.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: We want to go back.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_04: We want to go back, but uh apparently I started a cult as I was leaving.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_04: Potentially.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know if that's gonna be followed up upon.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_04: But anyway.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: No, I think it will be.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think Jim's gonna let us forget that.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_04: Anyway, yeah, my character was a paladin kind of character that was at the start very noble and righteous.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_04: Probably overly self-righteous, to the the point where he would get in the way of the other party members because where they wanted to save the vampire family, I was immediately like, stab, stab, stab.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_04: They're they're heathens and and monsters, and they need to die.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, I gave I gave the character uh a Scottish brogue myself.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_04: I I tried to tap into my inner David Tennant there.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_04: And nice.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and uh uh Rurik Rurik Hillbeard was my character.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: Rurik Hillbeard.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's what was notable is that like it was my friend group, and then I invited Dakota, and none of us actually do voices, and I don't think I mentioned that to Dakota, and then Dakota showed up to play, and he just had this crazy accent.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_02: But we all loved it.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: It was awesome.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was gonna say that's awesome.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um it it is like interesting that you take elements from characters that you know, maybe inject a little bit of yourself into these characters.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you see some of these these uh these voice actors and the way like when you see them them speak and the way that they are, like I'm not saying that Travis, the voice of uh Grok, he like he's like a tall, like bigger gentleman.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: So like it kind of makes sense that he was like a bigger character, but um, you know, for oh, but for for me, it was like it's hard to not talk about this without like talking about your own DD experiences, but like mine is a combination of Aang and Jackie Chan from Drunken Master.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's a pretty good combo, actually.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that is a good combo.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: And like I I do the it's the way of the drunken fist, and like you your character doesn't really have to be drunk, but I was like, but that doesn't make sense.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: I want to be like a drunken master that actually drinks.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: So like I so like I have like a like a drinking gourd that I'm just like and then flurry a fist all day.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: I I try to get my DM.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_02: That is that it you're actually very moderate in your drinking in person, like in real life.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, yeah.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like you're super moderate in your drinking, so it's really funny that you're playing like a drunk character.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_03: I'm stealing your character because I think it just uh it would work for me.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: So Rich is gonna like create a character like that, and then he's just gonna like bust out like four uh voodoo rangers and just like down them and be like, I'm getting into character.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_03: Juice Forks, baby! Juice forks of sponsor of the podcast, unofficially, like the unofficial in the end.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_04: Rich is gonna do that, but in real life, you know, while on vacation.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_04: He's by the pool, so he's gonna be like, I'm channeling Aang and actually Drunken Masters.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_03: Funny that you should say Aang because uh we got in the pool today, and uh this is complete sidebar, sorry.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_03: But uh my son thought he could splash very well, and he's a he's about he's about to be 12 in December.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I was like, dude, I can water bend, and I was just covering him.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I was like, look at that, Fire Nation, take this, and I was just going nuts, and it was so he was like, Show me your techniques, Dad.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, How do you do that?
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: Show me your ways.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: You were like Katara.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: And then the water tribe attacked.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_04: Oh man.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: With my character, like speaking of like you give the character something that you don't have, I'm quite short, I'm five two, and I made my character really tall, but then I like forgot that she's supposed to be tall, and like at one point it came up and I was like, what are you guys talking about?
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not tall.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: And my DM Jim was like, your character is tall, but like I in my mind don't even know how to be tall.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm so not tall that like I can't even fathom the concept.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, when when like we're like at CVS, I'm able to like see over the the shelves of you know the different shelves of the CVS or whatever.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_04: But like she can't.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_04: She's like I'm living in a different world, she's locked in the labyrinth of store shelves.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_04: I can easily see where the exit is at all times, but she's not that I really have to navigate the corn maze.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_03: Whenever I make myself in a game, I'm always very loyal to my height.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes in some video games, like making yourself five seven is not the best.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like in the wrestling games, I'm five seven, you know, like five six and a half, whatever, and I'm just the tiniest guy trying to do like the j the craziest moves or or football.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_03: You don't know a lot of football players who are five six, uh trust me.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_03: So I get I you gotta have moves.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's funny.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: After the the bit with the the dragon, we're like, oh wow, like you know, they kill the dragon, they find out who it is, and it's like, okay, where where are they gonna take it next, right?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we didn't they pivot over to a backstory with um Percy, like something that uh White So Whitestone's like an actual like town that I've heard of in DD.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_03: My wife's from Whitestone in Queens.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_03: White Stone's it was very enjoyable the entire show to hear like we must save Whitestone, and I'm like, that's that's I was thinking the same thing actually.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you're a New Yorker, you know Whitestone and it's like a real but it sounds very fantasy.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's just it's 10 minutes from City Field.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_03: Very Italian.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_04: Italians can be fantastic.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_04: Let's be honest.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: Is that is that why everybody in Whitestone had some like you know, kind of Guido vibes?
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_03: I'm telling you, man, I don't know.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_03: They're probably like, hey, it's like Whitestone from Queens.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_03: David Tanner definitely knows where Whitestone quit.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's like the word Windbreaker.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Windbreaker is just like a jacket, but it sounds like such a cool sword name.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_04: It does.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like when I heard Whitestone, I'm thinking of I used to go to Whitestone Movie Theater in the Bronx.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, then it's like, oh, now this is like this fantasy place.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, yeah, come to think of it, it actually does sound very fantasy fantasy.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_04: Other fantasy names like Briarwoods and stuff.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sure that's a real place, too.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_03: That's where my high school was, Briarwood.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_03: Briarwood, Queens.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_03: I'm telling you, Queens.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man, they just gave me words like wait, was it real?
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_03: 100%, and it's like 10 minutes from Whitestone.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm telling you, a dude from Queens.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm wondering if it's looked for like fancy English style towns in Queens and said, Okay, we got we got Briwood, we got white, we got Whitestone, how about Long L C No that doesn't work, you know?
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_03: Like they literally, if there's another one and they're in Astoria or something like that, I'm gonna lose my mind.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: In the next campaign, they go to the shore, you know?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_04: So that would fit.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_04: That would fit.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's that is funny.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't even make that connection, to be honest.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_04: But what is the the town you're vacationing in?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_04: Like you mentioned earlier.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_03: Sparrowbush.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_04: Sparrowbush, that would be a perfect name for a location.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_04: Let's go to Sparrow Bush.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_04: I you just gotta like combine two old-sounding nouns together.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_03: I I thought the shift to Whitestone was was really cool though.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_03: Like I I was kind of it almost felt like I don't know, one of my favorite shows ever, The A-Team, starts with like a pilot episode that goes two episodes, right?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then it completely changes to something else.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_03: But like that those first two were like a combined story.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I I thought that was a really cool way to start it off.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_03: And honestly, like Percy was probably my the person I was least interested in.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't I didn't get his character, I guess, at first.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know he seemed just like some nerdy dude with a gun in the group, and I you know he's smart and stuff, but I was like, okay, whatever.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_03: Like Scanlin's hilarious, grog's stupid and makes me laugh, Pike's tiny and hilarious you know, like I thought she was pretty cool.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_03: I I really could find something about all the characters, like Kiki's anxiety.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, man, let's go.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm all about anxiety.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_03: That's I'm a bundle of nerves.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_03: So I really was able to connect with all of them.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_03: So I think like narratively, it's almost I'm not sure if it's like they did it on purpose, obviously, to kind of keep us away from Percy's story, but we I feel like we get him the least at the beginning, and then he's the one that the story is kind of truly about.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_03: So I thought narratively it was just a smart thing to do.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_03: And Dakota, just bringing back what you said before about the flashbacks, I've spoken on this podcast many times about how I hate flashback heavy stuff.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_03: And I thought they did this super well.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like I have I don't think I have complaints.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: Like I thought everything was done super well, the pacing was done super well, the the everything in terms of the structure of the story was was excellent.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I agree with that.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_04: And speaking about Percy as just a character and character design, he is the least fantasy setting of them in general, you know, like he could be a character in the 1800s or 1900s, you know.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_04: Like he's given like a steampunk look, he's using gunpowder and firearms, he's got a mohawk thing going on.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_04: Not a mohawk, but you know, like a faux hawk sort of thing.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_04: And he's wearing a popped-up trench coat, you know, or a peacoat, whatever.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that is such a he was the odd person out, you know, like he he came across as the leader of the group.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_04: The uh unofficial leader of the group.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_04: You know, like he Yeah, yeah, that's a good way.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_04: I was trying to figure out a way to like put that, but yeah, he is this very few people's favorite characters is Cyclops, but you can't have the X-Men without him, you know, like it's Cyclops.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that that's the case with Percy, because I think so much of the story, well, it so much does revolve around him, but so many of the character moments that you see revolve around the narrative that is, you know, his family legacy.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_04: And his character design being almost steampunkish really led into the almost like Van Helsing-y like feel to uh like entering into like vampires and werewolves and that kind of area of like the fantasy setting, which I I really appreciated, you know, and I think that is the joy of DDs.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_04: You can have dragons and and monsters, and then you can have much more grounded Transylvanian monsters like vampires and stuff.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and the the in-between there and the the bouncing back and forth is what makes Dungeons and Dragons so fun, and I think that's what makes this show work so well because they're they're constantly throwing new stuff in.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_03: Anthony, two questions.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_04: Dungeon Oh, sorry.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, go ahead.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, go ahead.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, you really like the zombies too.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_02: I really dislike zombies.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: I did not want to watch that.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_02: I really dislike zombies as a concept.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: But these are undead, they're not zombies.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: They're zombies.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you have two questions first, Anthony.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_03: If you will.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_03: Is Percy's gonna blunderbuss?
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_03: Because I really like I can accept blunderbuses, but is this like a different type of uh gun altogether?
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um the gun that he was using in this one.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: So this one was like a blend of uh it was like practical parts infused with magic or like like a dark magic.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_01: And um you kind of get a bit of that where like like hit his so his weapons were dangerous because it's not just like a regular I would say like it's closer to like an art like artificer kind of like weapon where it's like you know you got a gun but it's like also magical.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: But hit his had some had like a had a curse attached to it, so that was bad.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_04: That's also jump jumping on that actually, like I think sorry Rich, I'll let you ask your second question in a bit.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_04: I I love the idea of sentient weapons, you know, like or weapons that like have the ability to interact with their owner like that.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_04: And you think of like the one ring in Lord of the Rings and stuff, and like Harry Potter's wand.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, where it has that connection with Baltimore and it's kind of doing its own thing sometimes.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_04: A little bit.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: There are times in later books where the wand does stuff and he doesn't understand, it has its own like moral compass.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_04: I sure okay.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I I think it more like okay, yeah, I can see.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_02: I can see I can you can't argue this.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_04: I'm thinking more like weapons that you can beak to and will control you and don't always have your best interests at heart.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_04: They I've gotten into like a a section of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series where they are discussing like the the dangers of sentient weapons and like why, you know, like why never to like touch on touch them and like get involved with them because eventually they'll betray you.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I think that is just a cool concept because it's it's almost like your ally, but it isn't really your ally.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: I did play a one-shot that there somebody had a sword that had a like a living worm that was like the essence of it was in the sword and like could speak to the wielder.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: So like pretty much what you were saying.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_04: Rich, your second question for Anthony.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_03: Is I don't under is Silas under Lorelei's command?
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I just went with something that sounded like I'd had lots of eyes in it.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_04: They're close.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_03: They are uh so deli so what I don't understand is like so he's dying, and then like he knows he's about to die.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_03: She does some crazy not voodoo magic, but blood magic, and he wakes up and he's like, Thanks, babe, and like he doesn't like seem to He goes, I feel better now.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and just like excuse me?
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like how I don't understand.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know, man.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: If I woke up and like I was on my deathbed and I was suddenly better, and obviously it's not like 2026 with like great medicine, you know, like I'm not in a he's not in like the he's like in hospice care, like he's about to die.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_03: He's at home to die, and then he's just like he didn't go like, hey, how'd you do that?
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know?
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_03: It and it the only thing that I didn't like is it seems to just immediately he comes back to life and now he's kind of evil.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I wondered if he was under her thrall the way that Cassandra was for so many years.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_03: Cause I thought I can't know, I don't know if I remember this, but I feel like there was a flash of the yellow eyes that seemed to be like you're under power when he like got up.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_03: I don't so I I'm just kind of wondering if he was under her power or if we're just supposed to believe that he broke bad because he's alive.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like we would have gotten glimpses of him kind of like breaking out of it.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: Similar to um, you know, when whenever anybody else was taken over, there'd be like those kind of moments where they would like fight back before they would like get brainwashed again.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I think for them they were just you know, she pretty much turned him into like a vampire.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then he has like this crazy blood sword that gets stronger with blood, so that's a very fitting weapon for uh for a vampire.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_04: I did like the use of mirrors in this.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_04: I think mirror like vampire lore is interesting because like there are certain things that like you need in a vampire story, and that's one of the that's one of the things is
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: uh that's how you know they are you need your stakes and and you need you need mirrors that don't reflect vampires even their clothes yeah because they were asking for holy water and wooden stakes and all that stuff when they uh box machine I really liked the names like Silas and Delilah they sound so evil those two names just sound like as soon as you meet the characters Silas and Delilah like those are the bad guys they're not I liked that Rich also thought of the name Lorelei because like the the myth of Lorelei is that it's like a sea creature that lures sailors to their death.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's like certain names that sound really pretty can actually be quite haunting.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_02: I also wonder if like Silas and Delilah is supposed to be a story akin to Samson and Delilah which would make sense with what Rich was saying earlier how maybe she kind of betrayed him and made like controlled him but then he just turned into an evil vampire you know instead of like tearing down all the I like that yeah columns or something that it's Samson do you like tore down a bunch of columns right tore down the columns and it fell onto everybody.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah the first part of that name the first part of that name uh really makes for a good villain name you like you said Silas you have heroes the villain and that one's name Silar.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah I was we were just watching that the other day um oh yeah you see that uh it's on Netflix I was like oof man but uh oh yeah that that's something that we've been up to we're yeah we've heard to make sure we watch quite a bit of that I've actually I've only seen the first episode of that so the rest was kind of new to me.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my my son's watching uh Ted Lasso with my wife and there was a if you've ever seen Ted Lasso there are a couple of scenes that were a little uncomfortable there's like a masturbation scene kind of although brief in Ted Lasso where uh I don't remember that Roy Kent when he's with the blonde girl Keely uh she's pleasuring herself when he arrives home because she's watching his retirement speech and he's crying in it like that's what she's getting off to and Charlie and we're just we're just sitting there oh like the room was heavy as hell wait how does how does what you're saying connect at all to what I was saying what the hell I kept I was like is there a character from heroes like there's gotta be no the feeling of uh you said that it was kind of uh it was kind of like weird a couple of times and uncomfortable no I didn't did I say that somebody just said that one of you guys just said so alright I'm gonna rewind later this guy just uh it's a good thing we're being recorded because I feel like I'm losing my mind kind of had a stroke just now and just like this is something that I remember I kept like waiting for the connection I was like is there a character from heroes like I don't understand okay that is a scene that I I remember I remember that yeah I do remember that one now um poor Charlie that's early exposure to that speaking of heroes some of our heroes go through some uh growth right connection growth you don't go through a lot of growth scan scan's constantly growing all the time every time he's in a new town does he have lightning that comes out of his crush is that is that is that a a and he could do like special effects like light effects when he's singing I know that yeah no I I saw that but I like when his use of like mage hand he's like scanning's hand yes um but I really liked about the show oh sorry um um what I was saying is that there um like Pike kind of goes through some like existential crisis and kind of has to figure out some stuff like you know mentally and she comes back with uh some astral projection like just crazy paladin magic and Keelith does too.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_04: Do we think that she was too OP uh when she came back because she came a whole lot she was like glowing like a god and she like enchanted everybody's weapons and also killed all the zombies and also healed all the wounds at the same time and I was just like you have a problem with how much mana is this you have a problem with Gandalf Gandalf the White sir?
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_03: I I felt like it was I was like this is the Gandalf the White Arc.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_02: But like what Gandalf did No Gandalf never did that.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_02: Gandalf also like faced Balrog like she just faced her inner guilt.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah guilt can be a powerful monster okay so I here's the thing like it's a good thing you brought up Gandalf because I don't think he ever does anything like that where it's like so OP that like he changes the course of the battle for everybody.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_04: Well he shows up remember when he goes and then he has a big light beam right and he pushed them away for a little bit and they came back later and yes but it wasn't that he didn't kill everybody with his light beam.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah he was just more like strategizing in the background.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_04: So I think that's something that does bother me occasionally and stuff like this where characters will just have insane powers that come and go.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_01: And there I mean there it was a like she had so it's like a concentration type of ability and if like that concentration broke she would have to like if her projection died then obviously like it would have been it would have severed the connection you have that moment where she gets disconnected when that like kind of anti-magic orb pops up.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think that like every OP or everything that seems OP has some sort of drawback to it.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean very similar to like Superman that was always my gripe but he has his weak weaknesses too.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_02: So you know what was also really OP was that door that they just like couldn't get through for forever it was like a really tough door and I like one thing I really like about the show is where you can see what the roles are and I think Anthony was kind of just alluding to that where like if it's a concentration thing maybe the character was just rolling incredibly well and was able to maintain that throughout that battle.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_02: But it was just funny because you had like three pretty powerful characters who are all stuck behind a locked door and it's very clear that they're like the players are just rolling bad like they're probably just getting it like at one point one of the characters like cuts their fingers and you know they got like a now like one or something.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yes 100% like actually that's a really good point.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_04: I I hadn't even considered like that was like poor roles.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_02: It was just bad roles.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um well like but I incorporating like their experience uh as a campaign into this into the show so yeah I mean I I would agree that they're they were incorporating bad roles into that too.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_04: I because this is adapting their campaign there were moments where I as a viewer knew how to get past a certain thing that they were like frustratingly taking a long time on and that that was kind of annoying.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_04: Like there's the fight with the professor we know that he's like controlling everybody.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_04: Stop fighting the armor things stop trying to like you know stop your friends.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_04: What you need to do is decapitate the guy controlling everyone and I can totally see in a battle like oh you keep missing so now you start fighting something else and then everyone gets involved in fighting the other things and now there's four of them and you know this one's attacking this guy this one's attacking this guy these two guys are attacking that guy and that's how the battle plays out but ultimately the battle isn't finished until you decapitate the leader.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_04: And while it was fun in my head I'm just like come on guys just take out the fat guy.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah what do what do you think of it actually I interpreted that scene a bit differently because I I thought that it was like now I'm calling him Drax what's the character's grog?
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: Grog.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_02: So when Grog is like possessed and is battling them I thought that because he caught them unaware he was attacking first so they all had to react specifically to him but when you're watching it on a TV show it's frustrating because it's like you know that one of the characters could go around but like when you're playing DD if you're all like needing to respond you're prompted to react to that thing.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_04: And that's that's why I noticed what was happening.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_04: That's what I'm trying to say like I I recognize the battle mechanics as they were happening and it doesn't work as well on screen as it does in a game you know and I think that took me out of it a little bit.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_04: But I think that that's a really minor issue.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like I it's not actually an issue it's just like oh this is something that I'm noticing while I'm working right what do you think the DC the difficulty class on that trick shot was if it was in their campaign the one that um Percy does like he shoots and it and it ricochets Oh man it probably was like 20 plus yeah I I would say 18 or 19 at least just to get past that.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah I was like man when I saw that like because when I do watch this show I uh I try to think like you know what what from the campaign are they incorporating and then what are they adding that might be something that wasn't there right?
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's certain things that the in that earlier uh Vox Machina campaign like you know there was like two years that we didn't get because they were just doing it at home they before they decided to stream it.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_04: Oh so that that explains why we are like reading the characters like they already knew each other yeah yeah that's cool I'm glad that they didn't just like restart it and try to like make that story again.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_04: They just kept it going.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_04: That's cool.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_04: What are our final thoughts on the legends of Fox Machina season one?
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_04: Let's uh throw it over to Rich.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_03: I've used it before but I'm gonna say a rip roaring good time.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_03: I uh I really don't have any complaints.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_03: I I was hesitant.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_03: You know I didn't hear I didn't know anything about this so I wasn't sure what it was going to be at first when it the first couple minutes I was I was scared it was going to be a flashback heavy anime and I was like oh boy here we go here we go and instead I loved it.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_03: Probably because of Scanlin honestly and Scanlon's hand everything uh he just made me really enjoy it.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_03: I I think I just like that kind of Bardy character.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_03: I I really think I like that archetype a lot anyway.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I feel like it has something for everybody.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_03: Honestly like I'm gonna recommend it to my son uh after like I'm gonna probably like next week or something.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's not like you said Invincible was like super you know like it was too gory and I he started watching that and I didn't like that but I think I'm gonna I think you can this is something you can watch as an adult 40 year old or you can watch it with your kid who's a little bit okay with some violence.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_02: You might have to answer some questions about beads though.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_03: No, you know what's weird is that sometimes when that stuff happens you just um it's like when a kid falls on the floor and hits their head you just make believe like it didn't happen and sometimes they don't react they just like go over their heads and I think you know I think he kind of accepts that there's stuff that he doesn't get that we're not gonna explain to him.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_03: We're like nah buddy you can find out on the interwebs.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_04: But that song's playing in my head but I would uh no high recommendation for me every episode it's a fun watch it's quick all 12 I would watch all 12 I wouldn't watch only 10 that's um that's a weird move but I I love this uh we are gonna finish the first season um we we know roughly how it ends but I don't think it really like stuck with like I read the recap out loud and yeah okay they win blah blah blah but we will watch the final two episodes of the first season don't worry uh we just timed this poorly um and we had a crazy week Anthony you mentioned the that you could hear the song and because this is in the same DD vibe I I have gotten to a part in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series where there is a song that is sung in the audiobook and it's a beautiful beautiful moment and you could tell that it was written for the audiobook because they long story short this isn't a spoiler to anything like it's so it you could tell like this was written just because they needed to get access to a certain guild so they needed to sing pitch perfectly so they take a bunch of potions Carl and donut and they do karaoke at a bar and right as they start singing Take on Me by Aha a huge brawl breaks out crawlers, NPCs people are getting killed left and right but they have to complete this song so the the the narrator is like like and then this person got stabbed in the eye and then you know someone's thrown across the room Take on me which book is this this is book eight yeah no I can I I would recommend if you you are a uh like a a reader of the series at least listen to chapter 56 of book eight and it's so good.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_04: And they actually use the music in the background like you could hear like the karaoke beat of Take On Me.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_04: And and and uh they have Donut do the harmony parts like so Carl singing Take on me and Donut's like take on me he like searches the voices.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_04: It's so good.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_04: It's so good.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_04: Anyway I really liked Legend of Vox Machina I had a really fun time with it and I'm really into like DD stuff right now as you can tell and I will definitely be giving season two a watch once I actually finish season one.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_04: Jen did you enjoy yourself?
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_02: I did um I have to confess that Dakota and I tried to watch this a while back and I wasn't crazy about the first episode but I kind of checked out I just wasn't digging it I wasn't into it and I'm really happy that I was kind of forced to give this another chance because I really appreciated it a lot more this time around.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_02: I still felt that way I felt like the first episode just like I don't know it just I I don't know what it is.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_02: It it just doesn't draw me in.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_02: But then the second episode did you know sometimes you gotta push past.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_04: Once you get into the actual character development and everything like that I think the the the way it starts is very in your face.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah it was just like a lot and it it was like each character was doing a lot but that's kind of how it is with DD where like everybody's kind of sometimes DD almost feels like the later seasons of the office where you can kind of become caricatures of yourself especially when you're trying to convey like this is who my character is and that's like that's how the first episode felt to me it feels like some of those later seasons of The Office where everything's just like a little bit too much and it's not as funny.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_02: But then they kind of level out and I I liked that.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_02: Also I appreciated how Percy is from Animal Kingdom.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_02: He's just from Animal Kingdom in the middle in the middle of the the map but I I liked the characters I liked the relationships like that you could see some some romances sparking and some not so sparking and I don't know I thought that there was a lot of subtleties and complexities that I wasn't expecting based on the first episode.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_01: I was like oh okay so like we're like there are some I don't know you definitely see more of that the what like as you go on with the series you definitely you know a lot of that stuff does end up panning out you see the some of these like relationships progress and then they're di also the dynamic of the team is um you know a bit more I mean it's still a little like ragtag but you know it it's they do it well.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah I feel like later you just get a little bit more nuanced.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like I kind of gasped when what's his name was like you know I love you right?
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_02: Vex.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah and then Kiki was just like this is such a bad time for this I also love that he's the only one who calls her Kiki.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's just like his cute nickname for her I thought that was really sweet and endearing like none of the other characters seem to call her that which I thought was really cute.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_01: Anthony final thoughts on season one you know I I I like Vox Machina I was the one that suggested doing season one it it's it's uh it's a good time you know I agree with Rich Rip Roaring good time.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh I I it kind of like with uh Honor Among Thieves you're you're watching a D D session play out right or a campaign play out so it's enjoyable and and you could tell that it's a passion project and I like that they've been doing it with their other campaigns.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_01: I hope they keep on doing it.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_04: You heard of your first folks please don't forget this is very important there is a lot of juice in this there is a lot of red juicy juice all over and black juice or in the earlier episodes a lot of black juice that was a kind of creepy thing.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_04: Please in that light please be sure to give us a five star juicy review wherever you're listening to us on your podcast applications and that'll help get the word out to more people and more people can enjoy the juice as it floweth guys thank you so much for listening to us here for 169.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_04: Jen and I won't be here next week and I don't know if there's going to be a show next week but Project Geekology will be back for episode one seventy.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_04: Keep it juicy my friends