Another campaign closes, and another one awaits.

[rogueslayer452]

Critical Role recently wrapped up their second campaign, and I don't have much to say about it, honestly. I sort of stopped watching midway through, since I was falling behind anyway (as you do) and I realized that I just wasn't motivated enough to watch the episodes fully. I eventually ended up watching highlights that are posted on YouTube to get the gist of what was happening. But as a whole, I wasn't emotionally invested with C2 as I was with C1, which was disappointing because I wanted to be but, well, you can't force a connection when there isn't one. And that's not to say that the second campaign was bad or anything, it just wasn't for me, and that's okay! Just because it wasn't my cup of tea doesn't mean it can't be someone else's.

My main issue was mostly with the fandom community, which that's a whole separate rant altogether because boy do I have Opinions on that matter. But I do think that kind of bled into my disinterest with C2 just a little bit, which is sad because you shouldn't let the misbehaviors and entitlement of a fandom ruin the possible enjoyment you have with something. Which is why I'll still be checking out C3 whenever it premieres, I'll just be separating myself from the fandom.

However, I have to say I'm more excited about The Legend of Vox Machina and the most recently announced projects, including the Vox Machina versus The Mighty Nein special one-shot!

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

Oh, that's too bad. I know you enjoyed it a lot, so I hope the enthusiasm will be back soon. :-)

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I mean, my enthusiasm surrounding the show (in general) and the cast hasn't gone away, I still watch some of their other content that they've put out and enjoy them tremendously. So I still love these people and what they do, it's just the second campaign that I wasn't feeling, and the fandom surrounding it as I mentioned.

[sudols.livejournal.com]

I completely feel the same. Campaign 2 didn't connect with me as emotionally as Campaign 1 did. I might go back and try again, depending on how much time we get before 3 starts.

The Critical Role fandom is a mess, especially on Twitter. There are a lot of not great communities, but I've never seen a more outspoken, dreadful bunch. The amount of times the cast has had to take to Twitter to explain things...phew. Matt and Liam just had to do it recently for something that happened in the finale, and I couldn't believe the audacity of some folks. Definitely will be staying away once Campaign 3 starts, but it sucks not having a community to talk to about it.

Looking forward to their new oneshot series later this month though.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Yeah, perhaps if I'll give it another chance someday in the future.

I'm honestly just so flabbergasted by the level of entitlement some fans have. And it's true that all fandoms have a toxic side to them, and this is definitely more than true when it comes to a show like CR that has been rising in popularity and gained a lot of newer fans once the second campaign began. But man, just the entitlement went through the roof and I think a lot of that started when Mollymauk died early in the campaign, and it just went downhill from there. And look, I get it, people have opinions and criticisms, I have them too, but the cast don't owe you anything when it comes to telling their story. You can critique the show without accusing them of not doing things the way you wanted them to, since that's just fan entitlement and fan brattiness, and I've seen a lot of that over the course of C2 within the fandom.

And I know that C1 wasn't perfect either when it came to the fandom drama and wanks and whatnot (the Keyleth/Marisha hate, for example, or people trying to police Matt how to DM his game, etc), but with C2 it just multiplied and it created a not fun fandom atmosphere to be in. And idk if this is for CR specifically or if this is just the curse of a fandom becoming bigger, as I mentioned, or the fandom community as whole in general across everywhere has become more and more entitled. idk

Either way, I will still be consuming the content the CR cast and team put out (and they have a lot of projects lined up, and bless them for having so much content that we can enjoy despite the state of the world over the last year and some), I'll just not be engaging with the fandom as much.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

The CR fandom is so, so toxic, but I love the series. I avoid the fandom as much as possible except for my handful of close fandom friends (from a different fandom but who got into CR as well), because I cannot abide how awful they are.

I had trouble connecting with the characters in Campaign 2 much the same as you until I got about halfway in, aided along by the fact that I DID feel pretty connected to Caduceus, so he ended up being my gateway character to the rest of the party. They all ended up having (for me) really satisfying character growth arcs, and the final major plot arc was *so* compelling for me that I couldn't help but enjoy the ride.

I am looking forward to the short campaign this summer, because Matt so rarely gets to play, and I am curious to see what they do for Campaign 3!

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I usually tend to carefully curate my online fandom experiences, since every fandom has an extremely toxic side and for the most part I've been able to be aware of that while not seeing it since I take the necessary measures to avoid it at all costs. But somehow, unfortunately, I saw more of it with C2 of CR than before, which is sad. I mean, to be fair some of the people I followed from C1 either lost interest with C2 or went onto other fandoms while also still being into CR but not blogging about it much, so I kind of went down a rabbit hole of trying to find things relevant to my interests with the campaign and that's when I encountered a shitload of wank and drama. Which I was both unsurprised and disappointed at the same time.

And listen, C1 wasn't all sunshine and rainbows either when it came to fandom wank, but I think the larger the fanbase got the more drama it would create, and C2 was a prime example of seeing that with the fandom. The level of entitlement from fans is astounding, my god.

As for C2 itself, I don't know I just wasn't emotionally connected to most of it, even after I stopped watching and only paid attention to the highlights of what happened in episodes I just couldn't really get invested with it (and for the most part I was only interested in those highlight videos for seeing the cast being silly with each other more than what was happening in the actual story, tbh). Perhaps I may go back to it in the future and see if that changes, but for now I'm just rather meh overall.

But yeah, I'm actually more excited about all those upcoming projects, and I really cannot wait to see Matt actually play! In a game that is part of his own created world! And have another DM for his world take those reigns! That's going to be great. I've seen Matt play in other games, of course, but rarely does he ever get the chance to do so especially in his own world so I'm really hyped for that. :D

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I get that.

The problem with only watching highlight reels is that you pretty much can't connect to the characters. The highlights aren't where the small character moments happen, and it's those that I find are what get me to resonate emotionally with the characters.

I'm excited to see Matt play! \o/

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

That's true, although some of the highlight videos I've seen do include some of the more emotional character moments of the episodes. Perhaps not all of them, obviously, but I guess what they felt were key character moments and such so I got the overall idea. But you're right, it doesn't really cover all the bases of those emotional character moments unless you watch the episodes fully.

[awakenyourfaith.livejournal.com]

This being my first campaign with the Critical Role troupe, I did emotionally connect to the characters, but I can see how you wouldn't feel the same. Keeping up with the campaign is like a day job in of itself. As for the fandom, I don't pay much attention to it, and I think that's for the best, lol.