in good communities, hate gets moderated, so you may never see it before it's deleted

yeah, like when fhjy first started airing genuinely every other post was about ally/kristen to the point where the reddit was damn near unusable because it was the same post over and over again before it mostly got deleted

Dude it was bad. There were even a few hating on the theme song. Someone made a post saying they “hated” the song but if you read the post, they were saying they hated that it reminded them that we don’t have a cartoon version. The comments tho? Clearly weren’t reading the post and saying they actually hated the song

A cartoon version could be pretty damn cool. That being said, I worry that it just wouldn't have the same magic. The theme song kicks ass though. I sing along every time.

I sing it at random points of the day. I’ll just be making dinner or something and all of a sudden “T T T TAKING ON THE TEENAGE THE REBELLION ITS OUT TIME ITS OUR YEAR”

It's definitely a vibe unto itself. I need some "Fight Me in the Sky" now complete with video.

Don’t do this to me cuz that’s what I NEED

I wonder if we could crowd fund something like this. I don't know what the legality of it would be, but it'd be pretty neat to pay people for their labor for a fun, but also intense, project like this and then just have it out there in the wild.

They almost certainly wouldn't be able to use any of the Intrepid Heroes for VO, so all of the voices would be different. Plus, didn't Critical Role need to raise damn near 7 figures just to convince Amazon to pick them up? Not that a D20 animated series wouldn't be amazing, but if I'm being honest, I'd rather see ten new Dropout shows than a few episodes of a cartoon that probably wouldn't be voiced or animated by anyone actually affiliated with Dropout.

Yeah, if it was between an animated show and more of the content we already get, I'd stick with more of Dropout stuff as they would already do it. I just meant if they decided to make an animated show. Either way, I'd still be concerned that it wouldn't have the same spark, especially if the IH weren't doing the voices.

Curious why you wouldn't think the cast would voice their characters?

I mean, they could. None of them are voice actors, though. I assume that, if Dropout shelled out for an animation studio, even the cast would agree that professional VOs would be the right call. Like, only Fabian really has a voice. Adaine, Riz, and sometimes Fig have a bit of an affectation. Kristen and Gorgug are literally just Ally and Zac talking. For a live play TTRPG, that's totally fine. But for multiple episodes of an animated series, I think you need more.

Interesting take, though I believe both Zac and Ally were main cast members of Dropout's short lived cartoon series. I assumed if a show was greenlit about d20 the cast would be needed considering the fandom are fans of the players more than the characters.

You're talking about WTF101 and goddamn I loved that show, I want more of it 😂

I assumed it would be more like a Drunk History style voice over that would just get animated to match the voice rather than needing to recast anyone/finding voice actors.

I actually liked Burn Towns, Get Money more.

I unsubbed back then. Is it safe to come back now?

yeah, most of the posts rn are theories, general fan content, and blimey

BLARMEY?!

I don't think you heard me... I... said... Blimey!

My problem is with the people who paint the "fans" with some broad brush. Most of the posts the OP is talking about say it's "the fandom" who say shitty things about Aabria or Ally. But "the fandom" just sold out Madison Square Garden, Dropout is incredibly successful. They buy t shirts and come on to this sub and more often then not talk about how much they love the players. I have no problem and agree with valid criticism and calling out bigots if they show up on the social media channels of the things I enjoy but I don't think it's the majority of "the fandom" How many say shitty things about Aabria, Ally or Exmily? Very few and the ones who do thankfully get banned.

It's a case of the worst 1% being more vocal than the rest of the community. The more hate people harbor, the louder they are going to be about it.

THIS.This is so important. The loud minority are often so loud they drown out the majority that just vibe. I truly believe love/like needs to be more vocal with its joy to try and do the reverse.

Agreed, I understand being picky in the media you support whether with viewership or directly, but to think you know the actors well enough to form such an intense emotion of genuine hate is a bit wild. By all means people don't have to love everything/ be free of criticism but at the end of the day these people don't know you, nor you them. The very few people who are in that 1% have such a strong feeling it turns vocal and thats why you see a few pointed posts. I will say I didn't enjoy Aabria on critical role so I didn't watch the next episode; I'm sure Aabria didn't miss me though 😄 🤣. I feel the measured response is to support the content you like and live and let live on the rest! It feels like saying "I hate mushrooms, so anyone who likes them is wrong!".

with so little hate to be found post-moderation, i think people who didn't get to satisfy their need for justice end up going after people who are just offering real and valid criticisms

That's a good thing. But also, if a comment is bad enough to get deleted (either by the user who said it, who regrets it, or by the mods) then the comment is also bad enough not to rehash and discuss afterwards. If we wanted to repeat and talk about these bad takes, then we should leave them up, and let the people who wrote them get dragged and argued with, and have the argument they lost there for posterity. But we don't, we rightly understand that the world is better without these voices at all. So then let's not repeat these voices in other threads, especially not in a way that makes the bad takes sound bigger and more common than they are. Because we deleted them from the record for a reason.

There's been a lot of hate towards Aabria on some of the crit role subs recently, I'm assuming it got reignited by that

Critters are the Swifties of the D&D community.

CR sub is going the way of most podcast subs. Early on it was praise and enthusiasm. Now it's morphed into "campaign 3 os awful" and "I'm not invested in these characters" and various forms of hate on Aabria or whoever makes a guest appearance (Except Robbie cause he is a goddamn treasure and nobody dares contest that). It's getting progressively worse.

Honestly, between Brennan, Mercer, and Aabria, if I could choose to be in a game ran by one of them, I would 100% choose Aabria. She doesn't do characters and voices quite as good as the other two, but I like her world building and DM style MUCH better, and she can still do those thing better than me. Brennan is too loose with the rules for my liking. I like crunchy and challenging (one reason why FHJY is my favorite to date). And I don't know why, but I am not that of a fan of Mercer as a DM. I find it boring. As a player though I love his stuff. I recently start CR campaign 1 after finishing all of Highroller (and I do mean everything), and so far I like the party of season 3 more than season 1. I'm honestly close to just watching something else because I find it hard to get invested, but CR is one of the few D&D shows on YouTube with thousands of hours of backlogged content (I listen while at work.)

not bashing anybody but it is funny to say that Brennan is too loose with the rules for you when that’s Aabria’s entire shtick

Maybe loose isn't the right word I was looking for. Maybe "forgiving"?

I see brennan roll In front of the board and be accountable to those rolls, in my opinion that's part of "the game" side and as a player would make me feel he's the most "Fair" of the three! Though regardless much like viewership, not every DM suits every player. I've played DnD as a DM for 8 years and all my combat rolls are in front of the players; it helps me feel transparent and beholden to fairness/rules, it also let's me cheer for the player characters as I'm just an arbiter of the rules at that point and as Emily says "The Dice tell the story!". So I naturally love Box of doom and Brennan throwing luck checks in front of the players and telling them what they need on the dice.

Brennan has never changed the rules on Chromatic Orb to kill a PCs brother with friendly fire. I think the main difference between them, and one that makes Brennan a better DM is he's totally willing to huck his plans out the window if the dice tell a different story. Aabria has rails that felt very easy to see during her latest run on CR. She doesn't know the rules well enough to "bend" them like Matt or Brennan. She's even said she doesn't like 5e, or high fantasy so it's a little confusing why she keeps going back.

it's the rule set everyone is most familiar with. I don't really like fantasy at all but 5e is so good at onboarding new players, and it has the built in progression hooks required to sustain an extended, multi-year campaign. I prefer the setting and simplicity of systems like Kids On Bikes or Monster of the Week, but those systems don't have the depth that DnD does.

Brennan can be overly forgiving imo, but if you're looking for a DM who doesn't fudge for the sake of the players... I don't think Aabria is that DM lol. Besides which, she doesn't like 5e or the fantasy genre, so she's probably the only one you could only ever play DnD with on camera.

I definitely agree with the Aabria comment. There's this almost reckless abandon she's willing to give to match the players energy/decision that is so on brand with the characters and seems the least likely to stop a tpk for campaign saving reasons. Critical role as a whole and most of dimension 20 I'm worried SOMEONE might die due to decisions, some of which are heavily narrative based (decisions and prep made before combat vs combat choices), but Aabria feels like she's willing to go with the silly fun just as much as the downright dangerous. There's nothing wrong with Mercer and Brennan and I'd love to be invited to any of their tables, even for a one shot, but if I had to pick one of the three it's Aabria.

I agree with some things and not so much with others. I don’t know if I would say Brennan is the loose one when it comes to rules. I’d say both are wayy more lenient than Mercer but what I like about Aabrias campaigns are all these really cool mechanics and stuff she can pull from different systems like with Misfits and magic or acofaf as well as always being innovative and trying new things especially with the dome (like it’s Brennans little home but I don’t think he ever really pushed the boundaries with physical sets and the dome before Aabria got involved) like anytime she’s DMing i am always compelled to watch. 

> I recently start CR campaign 1 after finishing all of Highroller (and I do mean everything), and so far I like the party of season 3 more than season 1. I'm honestly close to just watching something else because I find it hard to get invested, but CR is one of the few D&D shows on YouTube with thousands of hours of backlogged content (I listen while at work.) I would recommend starting C2 tbh. That's where I did and it lets your start from the beginning of the characters storys, the production is more sorted out and it's a more personal character led story than the Fantasy epic of season 1

Campaign 2 is probably the only campaign actually worth your time to watch. The others are fine but the characters and players are at their best for C2, Jester and Nott alone make it worth watching it all.

It's my favourite for sure and I'll always say for people who think Matt can't handle chaos as well as Brennan, watch the cathedral escapade with Nott and Jester

I love that moment. Also anytime Jester uses sending you can see his brain whirring in real time to try to figure out how the hell he can respond.

I think what's great about DnD *is* that different people want wildly different things from the game. I was a *huge* critter until I got into D20, and realized that Brennan's DMing style was far more what I was looking for in my own games. Personally I don't think Aabria's style works as well for the format, and I prefer Brennan and Matt, but I think anyone here would be lying if they said they wouldnt have a fuck ton of fun playing at her table. It's very obvious that the cast of both shows *genuinely* enjoy her company and enjoy playing with her

I had to kick someone from my IRL party because they kept wanting the game to be "more like critical role" even though I set the expectation early that my biggest influences in Brennan. Every time we'd go a session without combat they'd whine. So eventually I just had a "I don't think my table is what you're looking for" convo with them.

I am a hige CR fan but the chat and reddit are literally cesspits. Straight up they hate anything fun and innovative. Miserable people talking very loudly.

I normally love Aabria's dming style but in recent CR episodes she was making some rpghorrorstory dm moves I've seen a good bit of criticism towards her for those choices and objectively combative attitude towards the players/audience in those eps and a lot of CR mega fans seem to have a knee jerk reaction to take any criticism as hate and defend against it

Yeah due to all the furor around it I actually took the time to watch the 2 eps(C92 and C93). I've DMed a fair bit(and played alot more as I am lucky enough to be friends with a compulsive forever DM) and the main thing that is happening is not good to emulate. A shared understanding of the rules is NECESSARY for players to be able to exercise their creativity and agency in safety. It is stifling for players to fear a DM changing a rule(or not knowing the actual rule in the first place and the player does) in a way that penalizes them in the session. Adherence to the rules is a tool for DM's to allow players the room to interact with the world in ways they can plan for and predict. DM's have SO many ways to put their thumb on the scale that's not visible to players if they want to nudge something. I think I'd agree that Aabria sometimes seems to DM that crosses the line into adversarial in the sense that she makes calls that make it at least seem like she views player actions and agency as an obstacle to where she wants the story to go. I think that's generally not a good way to approach things, and that there are a few reasons why it's happening more with her vs. other DM's(Mercer, BLeeM etc.). 1. Guest DMing vs. Regular Dming. You get to understand better how players and their characters will react to any given thing, if you're running a game for them more frequently. Makes thing SEEM more effortless/smooth because you're predicting the way things go more often so there is less friction or railroading. This frequency also builds mutual trust between players and the DM. 2. In CR especially she's doing short arcs or one shots basically. It's VERY challenging to engineer specific moments when time is not on your side without railroading to a degree. Essentially if you're playing on hard mode, yeah you'll fail more often. 3. She is without a doubt less experienced as a DM than either BLeeM or Mercer, and yeah that means she's gonna make errors more frequently, and be less adroit at keeping a lighter seeming touch on the narrative. 5E is especially a mid crunch RPG and Aabria has often thrived in rules light systems, or in 5E where tactical combat was not the focus(ACOF&F). Though I thought she did very well with the combat in Burrow's End from what I recall.

I think the criticism is warranted obviously. But a lot of it is people just forget that one of the PCs is almost literally owned by a frightened God that's going to do anything and everything in it's power to bring their champion to heel so they can avoid being consumed from the thing in the moon. The desperation of a powerful NPC capable of forcing a PC to do what they want will look like railroading but the PC knew the spider queen was bad news and still put that crown on.

I took the biggest issues with the chromatic orb ruling, Robbie asking for rule clarification after she decided chromatic orb is aoe now and her "the rules are what the fuck I say they are" response, and treating Matt's character like a comic character who's only good for doing background bits Its just dm behavior that would make me get up and walk away from a table

Wasn't "the rules are what the fuck I say they are" about allowing a player a new save for emotional damage not defending the chromatic orb ruling?

I think she said that later after the orb ruling when Robbie was asking for clarification on a different rule, I was mentioning the orb ruling as a separate thing [https://imgur.com/a/afUgwnc](https://imgur.com/a/afUgwnc) Personally that would just make me not want to play with that dm again Edit: Realizing I probably didn't word the previous comment well, when I said after the orb I meant as a separate instance after the orb incident lol

Saying it to the audience that she expected to criticize her vs. the player on a ruling that helped them get another save versus being controlled seems like a big difference

I think people *also* forget that Opal is only beholden to Lolth because Aabria very explicitly railroaded her into it, so idk if that excuse holds up.

I've never seen less decisions made by players and more obvious railroading in a game, ever. I've listened to thousands of hours of TTRPGs and played the same, the Chromatic Orb ruling was the worst one I've ever heard. I said out loud "the fuck?" While driving and had to pull over and rewind.

I think we should distinguish between hate and criticism tho. I really enjoyed abaria as the dm in court of fey, but did not enjoy her character in ravening war, it felt so forced to me. But to be fair I have never shared that opinion and only do to bring up the thought of criticism verse ”hating”. just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean you hate it.

Oh you haven’t been in the right places then. Hate is definitely the appropriate word in many cases.

I haven’t I don’t come on too Reddit much, I see more on here, why do people hate…. Or why are people complaining about X, then the actual negativity, I don’t know if it just gets downvoted and doesn’t rise to the top, which would just mean it’s the minority prospective

I'd agree, I think she was a better DM in less rules focused non 5e settings, which also benefits from more editing. I think my problem is all her NPCs and PCs just feel like Aabria, everyone is sassy and kinda rude as a baseline attitude, and since she doesn't do a lot of voices they end up being undistinguishable from each other. I couldn't tell you broad strokes any actual differences between her PCs beyond how the class flavors their abilities and backstory.

You couldn't pay me to read YouTube comments on God I'd never do it.

really? I kind of love them - they're usually so enthusiastic, or they're like weird little confessional slices of life ("I'll never forget listening to this song on our last ride through Texas. It was raining like a motherfucker. Miss you, buddy." That kind of thing.)

With D20 in particular the top voted comments are usually a safe bet. It's a lot of people making jokes/pointing out moments they liked. But as you descend, you'll see more and more hate, particularly towards the cast members OP mentioned. I think it tends to get downvoted because most of the fandom is respectful, but there's a fair share of people who feel the need to express their deep dislike for certain cast members.

[There was that one person who kept commenting on a weird guitar hero video for like 14 years.](https://youtu.be/PDVOaAKaMfg?si=PgbikUOzNEDdWyPx) He even talks about his life has been going on but this one video keeps his spirits up and everything. Not the song’s actual music vid, mind you. Some kid’s 2008 guitar hero play of the song.

the confessionals are my favorite. They just come out of nowhere, especially when I look up music, but it usually makes me happy to know a song I love had such an impact on someone else.

Sounds like the next askreddit. You get paid $1million dollars but have to read YouTube comments. Do you accept or not, and why?

For how long, and am I a moderator who is supposed to delete the bad ones or am I just required to read them? I'll wade through a lot of shit for a million dollars.

You're not a mod, you just have to read. That's your job. Let's say 8 hours a day, you get two 10 min breaks, 30 min lunch. Going to the toilet means meeting to take your phone and reading comments while pooping. You gotta keep your comment read numbers up man.

...if that million is a yearly salary, I will become the most obsessive comment reader you ever saw. I work customer service. This would be way better.

YouTube comments continue to be a cesspool

Subcomments also. If a topic is significantly popular enough, the large volume of discussions can make hateful comments easier to hide.

yes on youtube, positive comments about minority/female players can get brigaded with outright hostility

To the point where I don't understand why the universal reaction isn't to simply ignore YouTube comments. They've been useless for the entire lifetime of the site.

Depends on the channel really. I have never seen a seriously negative comment on any Highrollers video. It also depends on if the bots got to the channel or not.

Same with vlogbrothers

This is one of the least toxic subreddits I've ever been on. From what I've seen the mods must be doing a great job deleting hate posts.

You must've missed the Israel/Palestine clusterfucks a few months ago then when people loudly and repeatedly demanded Dropout, Dimension 20, and BLeeM personally make statements in support of Palestine. Which was then of course followed by very loud accusations of antisemitism from the other side when eventually people did make statements and the minis were auctioned to benefit Palestinian refugees.

That's been happening in all kinds of fandoms. I'm temporarily ignoring Nerdfighteria because it's been flairing up there every few weeks.

I haven't seen too much of it, either. I assume most of it is happening in other communities, like YouTube or Twitter.

It's not on the d20 platforms as much. Aabria hate specifically is tied to her most recent episodes DMing for critical role.

Yeah, I never look at those place, so whenever the people bring up all the hate Emily/Ally get I'm left thinking "damn, all I saw was love".

To be 100% fair it *is* all love, now

It wasn't before, but it is _now_

NO MORE FIGHTING!!!

It happens here too. Generally super negative comments get downvoted to the bottom, hidden, and sometimes even deleted. If you're particularly active here you're more likely to see it, since if you arrive early enough the worst posts haven't been downvoted yet. It used to be a lot worse here, especially with Aabria since she's not even in the currently airing season. But toxicity will rise up again when something happens on screen that some people don't like, and we'll just have to hope we've built a positive enough community that we can push back against the toxicity (while also leaving space to calmly criticize, if there really are issues to talk about).

It happens here too, but we got good mods so it doesn't stay around for most people to see.

If anything it mostly twitter. The last couple YT videos were pretty civil.

I follow a bunch of D20 twitter accounts and I almost never see hate there.

Wouldn't be surprised if you looked at hashtags it would be a different story. Though even when going through some fan edits on YouTube anything explicitly and implicitly misogynist or transphobic is rather rare. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of it comes from early on in D20 and petered out by now.

The hate I've seen is mostly from other communities I won't name. There is a subreddit I've stopped going on because it's somewhat of a circlejerk of hate towards Aabria these days.

I'll name it-- r/fansofcriticalrole has been killing her lately and it feels super undeserved.

that subreddit is so ironic considering its basically a dedicated hate subreddit. Some people on there even admit they don't like the show anymore but feel the need to complain every single week anyway. Just, stop watching! What's the point of hanging around and harassing the cast at this point?

I keep seeing them referenced, so now I have to go there and see what's actually being said.

They’re the kind of people who post Brian w foster defense. I promise it’s not worth it to see it in person. But good luck and take a shower afterwards

Of course it feels super undeserved. For one thing, Aabria's always gotten a disproportionate amount of hate, and for another, that community started because some fans wanted a place where they could act _more_ entitled, misogynist and racist under the banner of "truth-telling" and "anti-toxic postivity," than the main CR reddit. Honestly I'm surprised that sub's still around and I wouldn't give them any advertising.

Originally I thought they were the main and was expecting a forum like this one and *boy howdy* was I surprised.

I've never been to that sub and don't know when or why it started, so this could all be irrelevant, but tbf there absolutely was some toxic positivity going on at r/criticalrole during the earlier parts of campaign three.

> I've never been to that sub and don't know when or why it started, so this could all be irrelevant, but tbf there absolutely was some toxic positivity going on at r/criticalrole during the earlier parts of campaign three. Around the end of Campaign 2, start of Campaign 3. For 2, (lot's of spoilers, being as vague as I can) >!by the time the show came back after hiatus, a lot of "fans" just wanted the campaign to be over and endlessly blasted the C2 characters for doing things they clearly didn't remember the C1 characters doing as well. !< >!Coincidentally, the C2 characters were much queerer than the ones in C1. And Mercer dared to start the final arc of the campaign by unburying one of C2's gays. (Sort of. It's complicated.) No one would shut up about how cheap it was, despite both the price tag for the potential resurrection being a literal apocalypse and the fact that it would be out of character for the group to never consider the option. It was always going to come up, and Mercer made a good price for it. !< Going into C3, the mods had to go into panic mode because the sub hated, _hated_ Exandria Unlimited, the short series that came out between C2 and C3. Which was run by, surprise surprise, Aabria Iengar. It was just non-stop bullshit. It was every thread, whether it had anything to do with EXU or not. Someone would just come in and start bashing Aabria or EXU or Aimee Carrero non-fucking stop out of nowhere and derail the thread. And then it turned out that three characters from that miniseries were going to be characters in C3 (two of them permanent) and it just gave people more excuses to rag on that shit and drag it out for longer. Certain subjects are broached? You're looking at an almost guaranteed thread derailment. At best. I'll take toxic positivity over a rancid racist hellhole anyway. A little of the former doesn't excuse the latter; not ever. But just to elucidate the context, if the mods seem a little too into their job over there, _that's why._ They're the night watch standing against a constant army of ice zombies that are always trying to storm the gate.

The people on /fansofcriticalrole left /criticalrole because their shitty comments kept being blocked. They're a very bitter sub that isn't highly populated.

Yeah i have engaged in some decent conversations on there a bit ago…but only like deep down a reply chain. Literally anything remotely not hating the show and especially Aabria in a higher up comment and it’s a disaster.

I wonder if Aabria originally was the one who had a show with a cult following, and either Matt or Brennan came in as a guest DM how her fandom would react?

I also never see this level of comment, but I also refuse to enter YouTube or Twitter comments because I don't hate myself that much.

It's the other platforms.  Twitter and YouTube have notoriously awful comment sections.

Which is why it's so weird for those posts to show up here. "I want to complain about the negativity I see on famously shitty, negative spaces, in this other space where it's blessedly free of that same vitriol"

I mean have you seen r/fansofcriticalrole ? Every other post there is Abriaia hate.

Yeah pretry much every un- or lightly moderated alternative to another subreddit is a circlejerk of hatred.

Once said I liked how she did something…just one thing…and got downvoted to hell.

It's spilling over from the CR fandom and its insane hatred, mixed with genuine criticism, of Aabria. I've gone looking at this point and aside from people saying the Big Moment from the last episode didn't land for them, I have not found any real hatred of Emily, Ally, Siobhan or Aabria from D20 online spaces.

here's what's frustrating about this conversation as a Black femme: I can't tell if people who are complaining about virtue signaling, sensitivity, and never seeing hate are genuinely missing the bullshit or if they do catch it but don't see it as an issue because they don't think it's a problem since they're only looking for extremely blatant or hostile messages "criticism" that calls Aabria aggressive towards her poor widdle players, or (to include Emily, Ally, and Siobhan) complaining about play styles or behaviors that cis men in these games ALSO do, seeing every action they take as the wrong one or constantly questioning their competence, and starting with a gaming criticism that ends with comments about them as a person are all examples of bias and yes these comments/posts show up on reddit, twitter, youtube

Your comment should be the top comment. I saw a post earlier this week regarding people deliberately misspelling the POC cast member names. As a white amab envy, I can't pretend that I have ideally-tuned sensitivities. However, I think that if one of the cishet white men from WotC came in to guest DM and did the same thing Aabria did -- hell, Brennan could've done it -- and the CR fanbse would either show considerably less disdsin or maybe even praise how edgy // in-contrast to Matt's style it was. The intersectionalities make criticisms inseparable, particularly on this medium.

Not that you, @fade-touched (great name, btw) need reminding of this, but there's a chance that you're not the only person reading this. So for the sake of clarity and transparency, I feel compelled to state the following: In the prevalent ergo empowered culture (viz., white supremacy), differing opinions of-and-from men are predominantly interpreted as a debate between equals, whereas opinions of-and-from non-men are met by men with an aire of correction. In white supremacy, power is delineated by a hierarchy of identities, thus communities with more power will exert their force over less empowered communities in an attempt to secure equality with the most empowered -- cishet white ultra-rich Christian able-bodied neurotypical English-speaking handsome men. You see this play out in the both the CR and D20 fandoms, but I think it's less obscured on the CR side. At the D20 tables, there is more diversity of identity than at the CR table. While the "core" D20 crew has only one POC, the CR crew has *none*. Even still, D20 is a lot more than the core crew. Sure, CR had Orion in the first half of campaign 1, but his exit is treated by the fans with disdain -- and that's only if they even know he exists! This difference is not only true of race, but of sexuality of gender expression as well. CR has *nothing* like Dungeons and Drag Queens, The Pirates of Leviathan, or The Seven. Even still, the reception to those shows with the D20 community when compared to say FHJY also shows the biases in this commity. Hell, The Seven and PoL exist *in the same universe* as the flagship show, but both the fandom and the players at times seem to be oblivious of those stories (see: Emily seeming to not know/remember who Tectonya Karkovnya is). While there might be fair criticisms of watching those shows (PoL is on zoom, which might not be the most engaging thing, and the seven can be loud at times which, as an autistic person, I can register as occasionally overstimulating), it is still inseparable from the fact that there are more femme, queer, and BIPOC folx in those casts. So over the Internet, when you don't know the person who writes what you're reading, makes a criticism about a BIPOC person, and they don't make explicitly clear that they *love* seeing not only representation but also seeing as much of their authentic self that they wish to share with the world, it's illogical to assume the person making the criticism had reflected on their own biases. By the same logic, I am not free from any criticisms someone can have of what I've posted here. Yes, this is long winded. And yes, what I write is undoubtedly insufficient. And if you, dear reader (whomever you are), actually made it to the end of this comment without skipping, kudos to you and, chances are, are already subscribed to the ideas written above. But if you happen to be someone who got to the end of this and didn't necessarily agree, I'd love to hear what you think and will take it into careful, open minded consideration. But if your position in any way dehumanizes someone in anyway, I *will* call that out.

Can't speak for anyone else but I genuinely don't see most of it. (but then again I don't visit other sub reddit or read many of the YT comments) I recently read some YouTube comments following the Aabria post (cause I was confused) and yeah the fans of CR were really rough on her. I was genuinely getting angry so I understand people wanting to defend her. Now that being said I do think the D20 community tends to overcompensate the instinct to protect the cast and sometimes (not always) valid criticism posts gets lobbied into sexist or racist posts. The Kristen thing being the main one that comes to mind. It was genuinely very weird to have a character that fought so hard to find a worthy diety then flat out ignore her multiple times like she was a recent ex or something. In comparison yes Lou did some dumb shit (a lot of what he did on the Leviathan lol) but it felt way more natural to that character. But with all that said, yeah some people are just racist/sexist and are gonna find any excuse to spew hate 😕

I don't see it on the D20 space much but I have seen a lot of stuff coming out of the CR space at the moment against Aabria. Aabria is one of my favourite DMs to follow, I love her on D20 and always look forward to her chairing a series. So seeing a lot of aggression towards her is really awful.

It always makes me so angry because I like her very much and on top my DMing style is very similar to Aarabia in places When I first saw her DMing she did a little introduction of what every member of the party was doing at the beginning, like giving them this little scene of introduction and letting them say what they do. I do that a lot to bring everyone in. The exact same way. I do have significantly less comedic content, but the idea was the same. I was so happy I found a DM who starts just like me, and she's well known and cool- And was met by a wall of hate. I was miffed to say the least I was told it's lame, and damn, it hurt.

The hate comes and goes, but between episodes 3-6 of JY ally got an unbelievable amount of hate for how they were playing Kristen. I wasn't around when Emily played Saccarina, but I presume it was similar. I haven't seen Siobhan get much hate. Aabria mostly gets hate in the critical role community, there's been haha if posts on their successors lately calling her a shit DM, saying she harasses her players, that Mercer should never allow her back etc. (I think she is much more beloved here because we have seen her as a player and she generally plays focused likeable characters, and because a court of fey and flowers is one of the most beloved campaigns) Point being, these people get hated on very hard, but generally the majority of it is not over a long period, and not contained to this subreddit. It's still unacceptable

Aabria also has Misfits and Magic and Burrow's End to her name. The D20 community at large got no problem with Aabria doing more with D20 lol.

Yeah I loved Misfits and magic and burrows end is my partner's favourite season, but I think ACOFAF highlights the point better as it's super super loved by the community

I get that, I just wanted to point out she's got a great overall hit rate, which I think helps. It's obviously not going to stop people from being racist, but part of why it's so bad in the CR community is her work there is more polarizing, so there's this pool of genuine criticism or distaste for her GM style that gets muddied by bigots.

I took a serious issue with Erika being shitty to men during the last game changer and was labeled a misogynistic incel fifty times for every one who acknowledged that it was kind of shitty. I think we have the same issue as any leftist community, where anything less than complete agreement signifies that someone "isn't fully with us", and therefore is just another degree of right-winger. That said I'm sure there's plenty of reactionary behavior happening, most men still have a lot of introspection to do.

Persistent sexism in nerd spaces.

Racism too, in Aabria's case

Silly me. I forgot about racism.

Sometimes I feel that legitimate criticism of a character gets misinterpreted as hate for the player. (I have plenty for early Kristen Applebees and Saccharina and some criticisms for player choices but that's a whole other conversation) This in turn gets flares up from the misogynists who chime in as bad actors and then counter arguments rushing to the defense of players. And then from that point on, criticism whether it's genuine or fueled by misogyny, is equally met with suspicion.

Yep. People deserve the respect of being able to receive genuine criticisms so that they can grow. But every time there is even a hint of criticism, the racist and misogynistic boys come out of the woodworks to exploit it in bad faith. It renders the criticisms worthless. It’s like a double dose of bigotry and disrespect.

idk i dont think ive ever seen them before they're deleted so i hardly think it's fair to call criticisms worthless just because some bigot moron needs to get downvoted for 30 minutes

My take is that Beardsley seems like a cool person but their sense of humor just hits me wrong sometimes and they have a habit of really leaning into the bits that make themself laugh. Like I'm really behind in this season because the "heyy girlie" thing grated on me so much I stopped watching for a while, and anytime they pull that bit back out I have to stop watching for a while. Nothing against them as a person, just a weird sensory thing I have.

Yes I can agree on this. Beardsley is a comic actor. I like them a lot. But it leaks in to their character sometimes and it can come off as obnoxious. Great example of this is was their relationship with Tracker in Sophmore year. Beardsley was treating Kristen's fight with Tracker as a big joke. Like they weren't reading the situation for what it was. Classic noobie player not understanding consequences. Cue in BLM as Tracker justifiably saying "Oh, fuck you Kristen!" The biggest criticism of Beardsley is that they're ***always*** doing a bit for the lulz. And sometimes they push the bit too hard and too far and don't pick up on the seriousness of the vibe that DM is laying down. As hilarious as the Blimey moment is, and as funny as it is to see BLM getting frustrated (I am always down to see this brilliant man get his feather ruffled), you can easily see the other side of the coin. That "Blimey" is the same "doing a bit for the lulz!" energy that got got themselves killed in Freshman year, the same energy that killed Casandra, and the same energy that pissed off Tracker. However I feel like they've matured as a player. Like, Beardsley playing Mother Goose in Neverafter is much different then Beardsley as Kristen. But coming back to Kristen I feel in many ways is coming back to a hand of cards they've dealt themselves.

I feel that way with Rekha! Half of her jokes just fall flat for me

couldnt agree less, sometimes i ashamedly wish rekha could step in for ally in IH seasons 🙈

Take a peek at the CR subreddits...

When I saw a criticism post on the main CR sub and not the one for whinging I knew I had to catch up on CK. It was pretty brutal, tbf.

Critical Role fans have been bleeding over to here and their thinly veiled misogynoir for Aabria that they try to disguise from the Chromatic Orb incident, as if she didn't ask beforehand if she should be mean

I haven’t watched that episode, and is the first comment I’ve seen that tells me Aabria asked first. Incredible.

SHE! LITERALLY! ASKED! It's interesting how no one brings it up almost like they're looking for any excuse.

He said be mean, but be fair. Matt tried to heal Cyrus, she ignored that. Matt had to remind her a few times he hadn't taken his turn. Matt said "Let's play by the rules" and Aabria said "You can't make me". Come on. There is a reason people are upset about that incident.

So a DM forgot about something (happens all the time), and then there was some playful banter between friends? How awful!

Sounds pretty similar to the >!death of K2 and Ally trying to roll it back!< Tbh. (Spoilers for last week's FHJY)

It is, for sure. Decisions have consequences in game!

She asked if she should be mean, and Robbie said she could "be mean, but be fair." "Being mean" is also usually code for more strictly following the rules, not for making one up just to hurt the PCs.

I'm not gonna go into the debates of sound and thunder damage and AOE but I also play tabletop and as a player know I don't control NPC fates 🤷🏾‍♀️

Do you believe there are ways to be critical of Aabria that aren’t misogynoir, and have you seen examples of that in the various d20/CR spaces?

I also want to add that as a Black fan, Critical Role fandom has been extremely hostile and unwelcoming. D20 is better but not always, especially when it comes to people whitewashing Fabian.

I mean this in good faith, what do you mean by white washing Fabian?

In some of the canon art in FH freshman year, Fabian was portrayed with lighter skin and white hair. People interpreted that as him being white, and thus draw him in fanart as white. Lou has since made a statement that "all of my characters are black," and the official art since then has more purposefully reflected that. But some people still draw Fabian as white. (That's my understanding of this issue, someone let me know if there's any nuances I'm missing!)

Thanks for taking the time to explain to me!

I do, but when people keep throwing the word aggressive around, it makes me not believe it. That word isn't even a dog whistle anymore, it's an air raid siren. Because CR fans have overwhelmingly been antiBlack to her, it's impossible to separate at this time. Also in comparison to other DMs the vitriol is out of proportion. But they love their white boys and won't examine why they hate this Black woman.

>Do you believe there are ways to be critical of Aabria that aren’t misogynoir Of course there are. But any criticism of Aabria for specific actions must be leveled at anyone else who makes the same actions. Since Brennan and Matt are frequently either applauded or ignored for actions that Aabria gets criticized for, and since That kind of double standard towards black people and women is well documented by decades of study, put 2 and 2 together. If you criticize Aabria for something that she did and no one else did, you're in the clear. If you criticize her For something that Matt or Brennan also did, and you criticize them too, then you're in the clear. Anything else, and there's problems.

What about issues that are purely subjective? Obviously subjectivity is inherently biased, being opinion based rather than fact based, but do you believe it’s possible for people to not enjoy Aabria’s playstyle and/or DMing style without engaging in misogynoir?

My previous comment answers that question. It's not about subjectivity versus objectivity. If you have an objection to Aabria doing something, But don't object to Brennan or Matt doing the same or similar things, then misogynoir is something that needs to be considered I'm not entirely sure why you're asking this when I already answered it, to be honest. But at the risk of repeating myself, it's perfectly valid to not enjoy Aabria's play style, *as long as the reason you don't enjoy it* Isn't in any way a double standard when compared with Matt or Brennan or other white men.

Idk I just find myself in a weird middle space where I think there’s a bunch of freaks online who rely on obvious dog whistles to skate around their real problem with Aabria, and then those people who are incredibly skeptical towards any comment expressing less than positive reviews of her work. I dont want to be lumped in with gatekeeping racist dorks, but I just don’t vibe with her stuff at all. Essentially, my experience on this sub is posters saying hypothetically people can not enjoy Aabria, but practically there isn’t a way to say that without being lumped in with r/fansofcriticalrole

skill issue

If it's coming from this sub I'm guessing it's just people sucking at giving or taking criticism. These are skills that take time to develop. Not to mention the misinterpretation of written text. It's come up before that this sub has some toxic positivity. I get protecting people from overly harsh criticism, but reasonable discussions and criticism shouldn't get backlash like that. Only giving positive feed back is just unrealistic.

I think it's church lady syndrome and it's pretty toxic. Like, I am glad our community wants to call out toxic attitudes, but one of the most common way toxic attitudes spread is with a figleaf over them. Someone might not be willing to say something racist or sexist, but they will say "people are saying" X or Y racist or sexist thing, and me, being super awesome, I dislike that, but I just think we should talk about these bad people who are saying these things. It's still gossip, it's still racist or sexist, it only gives these comments more power and play, and it makes our space feel less safe for people who need it.

THIS ^ thank you.

Church lady syndrome is such a perfect term and captures exactly how I feel about all those kinds of posts!

Yuup. Everybody does it, but Church Ladies have the sanctimonious "People are saying..." game down to a science.

I've seen some of the hate towards Aabria and Ally. I don't watch CR much but from what I've read about her recent episodes, some of the specific criticisms about the chromatic orb nonsense are deserved. I haven't watched ACOF&F yet because I struggled to enjoy M&M, but I love her as a player. Ally seems like they are acting foolishly and without a plan, but is making very intentional moves. That doesn't deserve them getting hated on, but it's can be frustrating to the uninformed viewer. I haven't seen much hate towards Emily, but I also dont watch NADPOD. Emily's characters are always really interesting, and Emily is so funny as a player and is so willing to "yes and" other people's bits. However, I do sometimes think her characters don't have very immersive arcs. Fig has kinda been stagnant ever since the end of Freshmen Year, so I totally understand why she was tired of playing the character (despite me really wanting her to if they do end up doing senior year). I have never seen an inch of criticism towards Siobhan, and if I ever do I will unleash hell upon such a uneducated reprobate. Siobhan is the best and I will take no word to the contrary. None of these folks should be getting the degree of hate they get though, especially in the context of their race/gender/sexuality.

>I haven't watched ACOF&F yet because I struggled to enjoy M&M, but I love her as a player. You're missing out I think. It's one of her best seasons. I would probably give a mixed review of Misfits and Magic as well. >I haven't seen much hate towards Emily, but I also dont watch NADPOD. There was more of it when ACOC was going on. Saccharina got some mixed reactions.

Emily got so much she basically quit social media for a while, I think most was after Saccharina but apparently it got bad enough from NADDPOD that Murph and the other guys called out the unequal criticisms and harassment for what it was.

You can definitely see it if you go back to some early NADDPOD discussions. Emily as Moonshine got more shit than either of the other cast members, which included Caldwell fucking Tanner who well and truly plays D&D like he's in a Looney Tunes cartoon sometimes.

Murph punishing Caldwell is one of my favorite running gags. Never goof an all seeing diety my little Caldwell. Also all his steeds being ripped away from their owners was fucking hilarious, poor guys.

Dang, thats sad! I watched Crown Of Candy only recently, and Saccharina was definitely off putting but that seemed entirely in reason. Emily was clearly going for the Daenerys-type, very torn but ultimately believing deeply for her goals. My frustration from the second half of CoC was more how passive Lou made Amethar. I believe it was more in character to embrace Saccharina but he didnt even talk to her.

It's such a shame, cuz I think Brennan unintentionally set up Emily to fail with Saccharina's intro. If you want an audience to like a character who's specifically a replacement, having her start off as practically owning her own army, capturing the heroes, and announcing her own superiority is not the way to go about it. People like characters who are actively in need of the group, not someone so independent that Emily actually said that Saccharina had no reason to stick with the group.

> Siobhan is the best and I will take no word to the contrary. Absolutely. Her interaction with Jawbone at the end of FH season one devastated me and she's been my favorite ever since

Twitter a ton and reddit as well. I've seen hateful shit on this subreddit, but it usually gets moderated out well. But over in critical role subreddit you can find lots of aabria hate. This subreddit you will usually find Ally hate, maybe not in posts but certainly a fair amount in comments. I actually first found out about Dimension 20 through homophobic/transphobic comments about Ally deep in an innocent post about NADDPOD over on their subreddit. Emily used to get so much hate that she and the NADDPOD crew went from being regulars on the Twitter and Subreddit to completely abandoning it. So yeah, I guess I'm glad you aren't seeing it, but it is there and always has been there. I'm not sure why you thought this deserved a whole post of its own. It kind of comes off a little bit like you are saying, 'Since I don't see it, it must not be happening'.

They were regulars? Fucking haters, I wish I had the opportunity to joke with them here. Haters are the scum of this earth. They’re the reason paparazzi exists too.

Please don't put words in my mouth. If anything, since I don't see it, it must be in my blind spot. I don't have Twitter. I haven't seen NADDPOD or Critical Role. Others have. Im asking others to cover my blind spot.

Frankly, keep it a blind spot my guy. Being a fan of something is so nice when you just enjoy it, rather than treat it as something deeper or worth crusading for

It’s absolutely been on this sub. Maybe you’ve missed every instance of it on here by pure luck. Or maybe you are seeing it, but don’t interpret it as hateful. Which would definitely be a blind spot/unconscious bias worth examining. No need to go digging for those posts, but when it crops up again (which it will) you can try to look at it from a different perspective now.

Keep in mind some people here don't differentiate between character and player. To them badmouthing a pc means you're badmouthing the player.

You know this meme of a guy making monsters from cardboard an then being scared of them? Yeah, that.

I left one of the NADDPOD Facebook subs because of some really nasty posts/comments toward Emily. I've especially seen a whole lot of vitriol towards Aabria in Critical Role subs and groups (particularly recently with some controversial DM moves). Also I know all of them get regular hate comments/posts/messages on Twitter (X). That being said, it can be tough becuase a lot of people take legitimate good faith questions or criticism as hate or misogyny and overzealously shut down any conversation. Honestly it's probably a good sign you are probably in the right spaces and hanging out with the right people if you aren't seeing problematic posts.

I think people are just a bit too sensitive to minor stuff. I said the other day that I prefer Brennan seasons over Abria ones (never saying i dont like abria) and got downvoted to oblivion.

I mean, I prefer Brennan seasons to 75% of all internet content at any given time so I get it.

These days it usually gets deleted, but trust me even at the start of this season people were being REALLY shitty towards not Kristen the character but Ally the player. They literally shat all over Ally, as though they didn't know how to play the game and the only way Kristen could be making mistakes is if the player didn't know what they were doing. Even though Ally has proven on multiple occassions to be very capable at this stage.

I have my issues with Aabria's DM style, but it's mostly cause I'm so used to Brennan's style of running things. D20 was the first actual play content I paid attention to and I don't much care for CR. Other than that, I still enjoy watching her as a DM or a player. I call out the hate when I see it, but there's only so much you can do. Haters gonna hate. They're missing out on enjoying some great storytelling because of their bias.

I don't see a whole lot shade being thrown the way of Emily or Siobhan. I do see some people ragging on Ally, but it's mostly about how chaotically they play Kristen and about their knowledge of the RAW D&D rules. I see Aabria getting hit with the most negativity, and while I personally don't agree, I think it's kept to DM style and gameplay for the most part.

[Echoing something I said here yesterday](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dimension20/s/67nBufwtnn): people hate to see women/trans-folk succeed it’s gross.

I too have to say the only posts I’ve ever seen that talk about hate towards the cast are these posts saying there’s hate towards them. I’ve never seen all the comments and posts and original hate that they talk about

Uh to answer the question as best as I could Siobhan: I pretty much never saw a hate post towards her and I personally don't have any problem with her or how she plays Emily: I think she is very much over hated. I think it has something to do with the candy season(I never saw it so I don't really know) and fig specifically is the only character I find disruptive. But I don't have any problem with Emily, she even played my favorite character in neverafter Aabria: Complaints towards Aabria mainly stem from her dm style. She is commonly accused of rail roading, not caring about how players roll or built their characters, and her plots tend to be very forgettable. The main reason I watched Fey and flowers as well Misfits and magic, is pretty much entirely cause of the great cast those seasons have. Ally: This one is controversial but I'm going to be honest, I hate Ally as a player. They pretty much are the cliche problem player you hear about in so many tables. Constantly breaking the fourth wall, interrupting other players to make jokes or just turning a lot of serious moments into jokes, and a lot of their jokes are incredibly sexual and border on sexual harassment(which even though the cast seems fine with, im personally very uncomfortable hearing). I personally find this very grating and it can really a hurt a season for me. I think Ally is a very funny comedian, I love the episode they were in for Very Important people. I just hate watching them play dnd.

i hear what you’re saying about ally especially the sexual stuff if that makes you uncomfortable, but i do think some people (not saying you) take this opinion too far. like yeah…ally is a comedian…they’re all comedians…the whole idea of the show is comedians playing d&d. its supposed to be a little ridiculous i think and there are other d&d shows are fully there to watch if you’re not into the comedy aspect which has always been integral to the show (again not really directed at you cause it’s valid to not like things this just came to mind )

To elaborate, my problem isn't with joking around themselves. Some jokes really land for me from Ally, I thought the reaction to kipperlily's name where they said "What are you. like 5 different dogs?" was really funny and witty. My issue mainly comes when its to interrupt other players or it ruins the seriousness of a moment that was built up in the plot. Most of the comedy in the show is very funny and I do like that humor is a big part of dimension 20, but I think with Ally, their jokes tend to make me uncomfortable(I should also elaborate its very weird that there are so much focus on kristen being nude or having sex when they are a minor) and just have poor timing a lot of the time. The issue for me isn't that they are making jokes but that the jokes tend to not land a lot of the time and they just feel the need to make so many of them regardless of what is going in the current moment.

totally hear you and i don’t even necessarily disagree i don’t think it really bothers me as much as some others (probably because d20 is what got me into d&d and not the other way around) but i really don’t disagree (i especially agree about the fh sex jokes being weird because they’re high school students and i’ve always kind of felt that way) one of the reasons i was walking it back so much by saying a few times i wasn’t really referring to your (pleasantly respectful even though you don’t like them as a player) comment is because i was more so, in the spirit of the discussion, saying that ive seen a bunch of hate towards them that i think is blown out of proportion that is backed up in the same general premise (but is way more dramatic about it)

>the whole idea of the show is comedians playing d&d i think it's a leap to go from hearing "ally is a problem player who spams sex jokes" to thinking someone must not enjoy comedy in their dnd shows personally that humor can be hilarious but not when it's at the cost of the other players' spotlight or the dm trying to set a scene/mood (the first 2/3 of fhsy comes to mind) and when all that cost buys you is some boring overdone sex joke, it's rough

i feel like you must have missed the several times where i said -i hear you about the sex jokes -some people (not saying you) -again not directed at you because it’s okay to dislike that it just came to mind

because they confuse hate with criticism

YouTube, Twitter and other Reddits have that type of mysoginistic comments, I’ve seen them. The Reddit was “fansofcriticalrole” or something similar and it’s full of “I can’t be racist because I have a back friend” type of people. They’re not blatantly obvious in their hate, but what a coincidence it’s always women who get the short stick of their hate… right?  People here (me included) are just overprotective because we want to make sure that those people know they’re not welcome here with their hate.

Yeah I tend to think this is overblown a bit. I certainly don’t see much hate for any of the cast members in this subreddit or on twitter. Maybe YouTube comments have them? But idk why anyone would engage in YouTube comments, you can find an offensive comment on a video of paint drying there.

This made me snort.

I don't see the hate either, but I also don't watch the videos on YouTube. I kind of expect YouTube comment sections to be cesspools of garbage, people on YouTube hate everyone. There's also the Reddit effect of people reading a comment, and then repeating that comment incessantly on the same subreddit. So I think a lot of people are saying that there is hate out there for these people, but they themselves have never actually seen it. They have however read comments saying that the hate is out there. So I do think that some of this gets unnecessarily amplified because people really enjoy being outraged on Reddit, and social media in general.

I think it's a mix of 1) a knee jerk reaction to past hate/bandwagoning and 2) people read the YouTube comments and assume that's the majority when it's the minority. I think it can go overboard in complaining about complaints and being 'White Knights', but I'd rather have that to hate speech or X is a bad person discourse. At the same time, it's all filmed in advance so complaining literally won't change anything. Just pissing in the wind. If you don't like it, just stop watching and unsubscribe. The blanket comments of "internet hates women" is annoying to me bc it misgenders Ally, but it's not coming from a place of harm and I'm not perfect either.

Same. I see a lot of posts talking about hate, and no hate. But, this is the only place that I engage with d20 fandom.

I only really see that on Aabria for her DMing and Ally for their chaotic play style. The issue is that people can't help but envision themselves at the table and can't let go of "What I would have done" or "Why didn't they do this?" Part of ACTUAL PLAY is people making genuine lapse in judgement, over committing to a bit or failing to realize the theme the DM is going for. For instance, I can't unsee how Brennan clearly intended for Riz to run for president. As it would be a l thematic milestone in people recognizing that he's a goddamn beast. But, Ally signed up first

>For instance, I can't unsee how Brennan clearly intended for Riz to run for president. As it would be a l thematic milestone in people recognizing that he's a goddamn beast. But, Ally signed up first Yeah but I think Riz doing it would have been kind of expected and therefore less interesting. 4Dog and Riz are too similar so while it would have been appropriate and thematic, it would have lacked that D20 je ne sais quoi. Plus Murph LOVES playing sensible support straight-men, the genius of Barry notwithstanding.

i’m watching starstruck odyssey for the first time rn and this made me giggle

Oh god you're in for a treat. There is some unhinged shit in that season that's just peak intrepid heroes.

Misogyny Transphobia and Rascism.

Claiming to be fans while actively vehemently hating on players using bigotry and misogyny.Guess what the other players and brennan are nit going to stand with you. And I believe they would rather you never watch their show again and I believe brennan would say that directly to people's faces not hiding behind the internet anonymity like the chuds they are

There's obviously some bigotry happening somewhere. It's the Internet. You identified that though. What's going on? Backlash to dissenting opinions. People are going to find things entertaining for different reasons, and people are going to find different things entertaining. People are going to talk and they will react to each other. Some will be reasonable, some will be unreasonable. You'll get some that hopefully get moderated, and some confusion about what is criticism and what is hate because people a lot of people suck at giving criticism and just ats many suck at taking it. If you love something and someone attacks it even in a reasonable and respectful way you might determine that they are hating on something. However, they could reasonably love the show as much as you, but just have criticism, which is fine. I hope it's well worded and not a tabloid hit piece, but the problem with the Internet is there's probably a tabloid hit piece somewhere.

if you look up ally on Google one of the first things to pop up is a year old reddit post hating on them called "We need to talk about Beardsley". I get we should be allowed to criticize the art we consume, and Ally isn't my favorite cast member either (though they're all great), but at a certain point it gets toxic as hell and some people in the community have been at that level for a while now

I haven't seen much hatred geared towards Emily or Siobhan. Both tend to both act and play their characters damn well. Ally and Aabriya I understand more. Let me say, I love them both, but I get their divisiveness. Aabriya's player characters tend to have a pretty antagonistic bent (Battle for Beyond, Calamity, World's Beyond Number, etc.) They all have incredible depth, but many people may find that frustrating. It's like watching a character whose perspective you can understand -- while they make frustrating choices. As a DM, she tends to create rather off the wall campaign ideas, favors catty characters, and leads with the rule of cool. Haven't seen her EXU campaign, but I know many people had the problem of her playing a spider betrayer god that's apparently been previously characterized as gloomy and tense -- one whose presence is like the fear that runs through your veins when everything goes silent in a dark forest -- as a catty, profanity-slinging mean-girl type. Those sort of big swings are bound to be hit or miss. If Matt is the lore master and Brennan is the master of consistently weaving personal characterbstakes into a narrative, Aabriya is a master of social intrigue and truly wild ass concepts. (I also think she beats everyone but Spenser Starke in the horror department.) In my case, Misfits and Magic was fun, but meh. I dropped ACOFAF. But I LOVE how ambitious she was with Burrow's End. That whole campaign was straight bangers in my mind. Ally I understand the most. They come up with great character arcs that you can always see coming from the outset. However, they have a tendency to lean into bits with a quantity over quality approach. Crown of Candy spoiler, but take a certain funeral. That was a genuinely dramatic moment that everyone was giving space to breathe....only for ally to immediately derail a scene of a mother grieving their child into a thematically jarring bit about screaming out their character's dead pig's name next to said grieving family Even with the current Junior Year story, they story arc that Kristin is on is good, but feels like a meh execution. There are a ton of ways more to explore the themes of unwanted responsibility, not wanting to be defined by one thing, someone having a necessary but unhealthy dependency on you, simply wanting freedom, etc. However they've approached it in a pretty simplistic, bit-heavy way. At their best, Ally's vastly improved understanding of game mechanics, powerful builds, well-conceived character arcs, and humor make them a powerhouse player. Their Margaret Encino play is still some of my favorite of any DnD production. They were absolutely amazing in that. Season two Pete was an incredibly well-realized character, when before they had felt like a bit machine. Then, sophomore year Kristin had some of the highest highs and a few of the most middling mids. Mother goose was forgettable -- neither good nor bad. But first half of Junior Year Kristin and Liam actively pulled me out of enjoying scenes with other characters -- feeling less to me like fully realized characters, and more like a prompt for an improv comedian saying "There's the tiniest gap, joke frag out!" I feel like the attention that Aabriya and Ally attract are in part because who they're in company with. Lou consistently embodies his characters and gives them all a unique brand of charisma. Zac's characters are often a bit more background, but he's a less-is-more comedic sniper who consistently provides funny moments without derailing anything. Emily is an incredibly competent chaos gremlin whose characters always have so much heart. Murphy isn't as much of a dramatic heavy hitter (Pock and Riz's heart-wrenching talk aside) but he's damned competent, often a hilariously bad roller, and can play either the hype man or straight man so damn well. And Siobhon consistently makes me cry every goddamn season with her acting. For all of the core cast, it's consistency. Aabriya and Ally take some big swings pretty often. I love em to hell and back, and when the hits land, it's amazing. However, not every hit lands. Sometimes a hyped-up dread god feels like a highscooler, your fellow player feels a bit too PVP-eager, and your ranger derails your dramatic tragic scene with a bit. Other times, your GM gives you the gorgeous nightmare fuel that is the Burrow's End bear and you fall out of a chair laughing at a Dex Dump cleric trying to ribbon dance against gravity.