idk if this is just me not being on tumblr as much / an artefact of the people i follow, but it feels like the critrole fandom’s just… gone Real Quiet since molly died? like i’ve seen maybe three (3) pieces of fanart with caduceus in it, and ao3′s slowed right down… idk man. feels bad.
I think it’s a combo of back to school/university time for many fans (I’m well out of that but I know a not insignificant portion of the fanbase is still in school), the guests/oneshot games/Laura and Travis taking time off for the baby/Burning Man making for an awkward transition period for a lot of people, it being still relatively early in the campaign and fans not feeling as strongly invested in the story/plot yet (they’re just kinda wandering around right now without a big bad or solid goals), and the fallout of Molly.
For the latter:
You’ve got fans who miss Molly a lot and quit the show, for a short time or possibly for good.
You’ve got fans who were going to take a short break for a while and decided to take a longer break after the “you’re not a REAL FAN if you’re sad, gtfo we don’t want your kind here anymore!” nastiness.
You’ve got fans who are still watching but don’t feel creative because they’re sad, and feel alienated from the fanbase due to the aforementioned “you’re not a REAL FAN” nastiness.
Quite a lot of fans were shipping Molly with various characters, and this spurred their creative drive week to week. I’ve seen a few longrunning fanfic series that have stopped updating as a result of Molly’s death. Even if you, person reading this, think shipping is shallow or dumb, you can’t argue with the fact remains that a lot of fans get invested in a ship and that inspires them to create, and losing that inspiration can take time to recover.
All totaled … I’m not surprised there’s been a dip in fandom activities and enthusiasm. I do hope there’s energy and recovery. But I’m not gonna forget all those fans who gleefully took the opportunity to tell sad queer fans, many of them young, to fuck off and leave the fandom because they were sad Molly was dead. A lot of trust was lost this summer. A lot of ugliness I didn’t realize was in this fandom was revealed. I don’t think it’s as simple as “we just need time to adjust to Caduceus.”
I think people who ended up taking a short break are probably just having a hard time finding the drive to get caught up after missing a handful of episodes too tbh. I stopped watching after Molly/Yasha/Jester/Fjord left en masse intending to check back in when Laura and Travis were back from parental leave, but it’s hard when you miss like 3-5 hours of content every week you take off.
Also, honestly, CR1 was a very low-death campaign. While it was always a possibility, and there were some deaths, the cast was the same in the first ep as it was in the last ep. It’s fine that they decided to go this route because it’s their game and they’re absolutely allowed to play however they want, but I’m not really interested in watching a campaign where we could permanently lose any of the main characters at any time.
I had some friends stop watching CR2 because Molly was their favorite character, and while losing him didn’t impact me emotionally the way losing my fave Beau would’ve, it just soured the experience enough that I decided to move on.
You raise good points. Those who take a break … the longer they take a break, the harder it is to catch up on the show by nature of the episodes being so long. I’ve considered skipping an episode here or there during a busy week, and realizing how far that would set me back, and then just watching even if I was tired or busy.
And the death thing … yeah. I saw a lot of “that’s just how the game works, suck it up snowflake!” commentary after Molly died, and 1) no need to talk like that to fellow human beings 2) that’s not how CR1 worked and 3) plenty of new fans joined in CR2 and are unfamiliar with death in D&D.
We had one permanent party member death in CR1, and that was at the very end of the campaign. We apparently got close with Percy, according to Taliesin it was very close to him not bringing Percy back, but that still wasn’t a permanent party member death. The whole time we were with the CR1 campaign, there was always a chance to bring the characters back from the dead. In CR2, it doesn’t matter if the player loves playing the character, if the fans love a character a whole lot, or if the character’s backstory hasn’t been explored … if you lack the spell levels/resources, a main character can permanently die and be removed from the story. This is a story, not a mechanics demo, but this came down to mechanics.
I’m troubled by this. I’m finding it difficult to attach myself to the characters in CR2, knowing that if one of them dies, this could happen again. I’m not here for dice rolls and “epic combat” I’m here for the characters and their stories.
I WOULD PAY TEN TIMES AS MUCH FOR CHOCOLATE IF IT MEANT REDUCING THE AMOUNT OF SLAVES IN THE WORLD? HOW IS THIS ANY KIND OF PROBLEM.
good news, you can! the company’s called Tony’s Chocolonely and their entire purpose is to make slave-free chocolate and reform the chocolate industry.
Whole Foods carries it. If you don’t want to support an Amazon-owned company, World Market carries it. You can also buy it directly from the company.
It’s the best chocolate I’ve ever had and it’s 100% slave free. Tony’s Chocolonely works really hard to push for transparency within the chocolate industry and actually has and is following an action plan to eliminate slavery within cocoa production. They’re good people who make good chocolate.
The USPS is the fastest, cheapest, and most accurate mail service on the planet last I heard, and is the biggest employer of veterans in the entire country.
On top of that, mail carriers: -have wages that top out at over $30 an hour (and their wages go up in predictable steps based on how long they’ve been with the USPS) -have excellent benefits, including a shit-ton of vacation time, plus a pension, and they can retire after thirty years
But they also have one of the oldest, biggest, strongest unions in the country. That must piss off Republicans so much.
Also, side note: they take zero taxpayer dollars. They’re entirely funded by postage.
(”But I heard they were doing terribly!” They’re not. Congress saddled them with pre-funding their retirement 75 years out to intentionally put them in the red and make them look bad. I’m not joking or exaggerating. There’s tons of info, but here’s the USPS’s own info: https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financials/annual-reports/fy2010/ar2010_4_002.htm )
In an awesome display of support dozens of gaming companies are coming forth with support and job opportunities for the now unemployed workers from telltale. These are just 10 of dozens of companies on twitter with these sentiments. It’s times like these where I love being a gamer and in the gaming community. Blizzard, naughty dog, Ubisoft, zenimax and countless others are showing the support that these workers deserve and need and it is truly classy!!!
Pass Through Fire 