So, originally there were eight people playing this game of D&D, eight real life friends who'd been playing together for years. As I detailed elsewhere, one of the players, Orion (playing dragonborn sorcerer Tiberius Stormwind) only lasted through the first 28 episodes or so before he was awkwardly ousted from the plot. At first they just said he was sick or something and couldn't show up, then they had him teleport out of the current doings of the group to head back to his hometown, then later on they officially announced that Orion had left the show.

Fast forward to episode 64, and we finally find that Tiberius has died, valiantly defending his city from a conquering ancient white dragon. It was a very emotional episode, where the members of Vox Machina were broken up at finding him dead and just emotionally wrecked.

The thing is, though, this is really the first media I've gotten into where the line between the story as told and the actual human beings involved is inevitably blurred. We don't just watch the story of Vox Machina adventuring around, we watch these real life friends acting out their characters' actions and interacting with one another out of character. Their real friendships are nearly as interesting and important to the enjoyment of the show as what they do with their characters. Knowing that Orion was close friends with these other people, and watching his character get killed off like that, was rough stuff.

What makes it rougher is that just recently Orion himself has released some statements regarding his leaving the show, including talking about how a blood cancer diagnosis around the time he was getting a bit out of control on the show* led to a simultaneous HIV diagnosis, PLUS he was dealing with drug related problems all at the same time. Some of his statements included really manipulative, vague language that make him hard to believe 100%, but I do believe that he was suffering from serious issues that led him to act the way he did and to his leaving the show.

I guess it just hit me harder than other shows' character deaths because, while those are typically scripted events that happen for professional or scheduling reasons or some other shit, this was very much real life bleeding over very visibly into an entertainment medium, so watching the fallout of the broken relationship between these real people get reflected in Orion's statements AND the on-screen mourning over his character's death by his one time real life friends was just pretty fucking brutal and sad.

I think around this same time, Orion made his own stream thing called Draconian Knights which was about Tiberius and Draconia (his character's homeland) where he voiced out all of the characters himself, which at that point just seemed like a kind of pathetic (as in, sad, not lame and he sucks) attempt at recapturing his glory days with Critical Role. So it also seemed like sort of a slap in the face for Matt Mercer to say, no, Draconia is destroyed and Tiberius is dead. Then again, I don't know all of the ins and outs of their real life relationship, and I feel dirty even wanting to know.

*To make clear how his presence had become problematic: Orion seemed very agitated and on edge increasingly throughout the show, and was taking powergaming to an extreme where he'd clearly overvalue the power and importance of his own character much to the detriment of the group. He'd regularly ignore things that were happening if they didn't directly involve him, just to plan his next actions to try to bend the rules just to the breaking point to become as powerful as possible. It began to really visibly frustrate the other players, who often sat around twiddling their thumbs forever waiting for him to finish whatever solo hare-brained schemes he was working on that didn't involve anyone else. I miss his antics and battlefield prowess, but I don't at all miss how often he'd hijack the show to stroke his own (or his character's own? hard to say) ego.

That battle! Jesus, that was painful to watch, mostly because I'm torn on who to root for at this rate. I hate Cersei, but love Bronn and Jamie. Dany is coming from a good place, but watching all of those soldiers burning alive was just...holy fuck.

I want Dany to be the ruler that the country needs, but it is concerning that whenever she feels stressed and under the gun, her first inclination always seems to be "Burn them all!" until someone reminds her not to do that (referring to how she wanted to storm the Red Keep, until Tyrion and Jon told her not to. The same with Season 6 when she wanted to burn all of the slave cities down until Tyrion told ehr not to.)

I'm also kind of annoyed at Tyrion's role since he met Danarys. The only purpose he seems to serve at this rate in the story is to fail and look weak just so that Danarys can look more OP.

I'm pretty sure he has much more to offer in the episodes to come, good story tellers wouldn't leave one of their main characters to just disappear under the shadow of a bigger character.

Smaug

I think you're probably right. At least I hope so. I don't expect Tyrion to win with everything he does, since that would be silly. But he has kind of felt slightly underwhelming since the end of Season 4.

The battle scene a couple of episodes ago on the sea I thought was honestly kind of shitty. Just strange directing and really low-budget Hollywood looking. By contrast, the battle scene in this episode was wayyyyy better looking all around, just wonderfully shot. Fuckin' terrifying to see how a single not even fully grown dragon can just utterly devastate an entire army. Plus, now that Dany is aware of Cersei's ballistae, I seriously hope she will be much more careful going forward with allowing her dragons to engage with Lannister forces.

I couldn't help but think that the raid party that Jon and Davos assembled is one of my ASOIAF fantasies come true. So much badassery in one group. However, I'm dreading the part where some of these guys get killed and turned to wights. What's even more dreadful is that it would just be warm up for when The White Walkers break through the wall and characters we like start becoming wights.

I know, right? I never thought I'd see all of these characters fighting together. It was like the moment in the movie Armageddon when the crew is assembled and walking towards the camera in epic fashion. I also love the brief conversation between Tyrion and Varys. I know this is a minor scene, but this is one of my favorite conversations in the show from Varys. It's exactly the kind thing I'd expect to hear from a bureaucrat who is merely a cog in the machine, but still attempts to disassociate themselves from the final outcome of their actions as a psychological defense mechanism. Brilliant writing. The next episode looks like it's going to be a big battle - can't wait!