percy and ripley are the only ones who would like. care? about regulating it. but now im thinking of an au where ripley isnt a literal murderer/torturer and instead just generally a terrible person and her and percy getting into academic rivalry in a place where non-magic-related acedemia actually exists
the glintshore confrontation is just a really intense conference where one of them flips over a table
Vex’s Grey Hunt was everything I could have hoped for. It allowed the best parts of her class(es) to shine (she dealt 66 points of damage in a single hit!!! Trinket was clutch!!!) and was incredibly badass. The image of this fight under the moonlight is beautiful, and Vex’s final words to the creature — “I protect this forest now. It is mine” — are such a perfect encapsulation of her character. She takes the things that she loves; she makes them hers and she protects them. She is greedy, but a loving greed that won’t let anything harm that which is hers. And now she has a land and a people to protect, and I’m so proud of her.
Also the description of the Grey Render: “sometimes bind themselves as a protector of a certain territory… given certain circumstances can choose either an individual or space to protect, as well. But, that can depend on circumstances. Otherwise, they can be a dangerous force of nature.”
Isn’t that also a perfect description of Vex? Wild, dangerous, at home in nature — but deeply protective of individuals and places that she’s claimed as her own.
I was gonna post a whole long thing about it but tl;dr I think getting the whitestone arc first spoiled us and skewed our perception of what d&d character growth and storytelling should look like
I only know partial bits of Campaign 1, and legitimately cannot set aside time to watch it, so would you mind elaborating a little more?
I keep seeing the Whitestone Arc cropping up everywhere, so it definitely had a huge impact, but I just don’t know why people keep comparing parts of Campaign 2 to the Whitestone Arc. I know the bare facts of the arc as related to me by real life friends who watched live, but they can’t seem to express their reaction to it except by repeating ‘YOUR SOUL IS FORFEIT!’ ad infinitum. Did it utilize certain tropes well? Did it have good dialogue/ good combat/good growth?
I’m really curious is all.
The Whitestone Arc––which I’m calling roughly episodes 24-36 of the first campaign, which was about… two years in at that point I think, including the pre-stream home game––was a deep dive into Percy’s backstory that introduced major through-lines through the rest of the campaign: villains, plots, mysteries, relationships, more. A bunch of it bloomed during the Whitestone Arc and carried through the rest of the campaign. It also dug into a lot of character stuff, the whys and hows of being adventuring heroes dedicated to doing Good. Vox Machina made decisions pertaining not just to them but to an entire city (and it came on the end of a… er, pretty rough fight, when certain members––Keyleth especially––were rethinking what it meant to be a part of this group) in order to save it, and that introduced a whole new facet to the show. And the game in general, I think; it was the point they finally found their legs and started to figure out what exactly a D&D show could be.
Not to mention the RP reached an entirely new level, between the introduction of a serious new character-heavy plot and the absence of a certain player. It was the culmination of a lot of change and stumbling around into something cohesive, gripping, and beautifully played out.
But it was also deeply focused on Percy, and I think hindsight often paints it even more as his story, so there’s a tendency to compare, well, any character-specific or backstory-driven plotline to it. Fjord seeking Vandren and learning about Uk’otoa? That’s Fjord’s Whitestone Arc. Going to Nicodranas to see Jester’s mom? Her Whitestone Arc. Vex in the Feywild? Her Whitestone Arc. Caleb and the Academy? His Whitestone Arc. And so on and so forth.
The trouble being, not every character or backstory is built for a twelve-episode dive into what makes a character tick and what’s lurking in their past, so not every character’s story can be like that. Whitestone was amazing––seriously, it was such a transformation and I’m pretty sure it still holds up, and it gave us some of the most iconic moments, one-liners, fights, and character development––but it’s just seen as the gold standard when not everyone even uses the same currency, much less the wealth to reach it.
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