YMMV / Critical Role: Exandria Unlimited

Season 1 and Kymal

• Contested Sequel: Reception to the spinoff has been mixed overall. While most agree the characters are great and the players' humour is on-point, the main points of contention are the free-form story in a series restricted to 8 episodes, resulting in many plot points being introduced with little time to resolve them, along with the outcome of later fights relying too much on DM-granted powerups.
• Continuity Lockout: As revealed by the campaign wrap-up, a lot of the backstory and character motivations of the series developed from a few Loose Canon test sessions, which the players remember fondly but the audience never got to see. The party lost their memories of these events in an attempt to justify this, but it still causes confusion for some viewers, who hope they'll release the pre-games someday.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Dariax is a Divine Soul sorcerer, meaning his magic comes from a connection to a divine being… like the being who created Exandria in the first place.
  • How does Matt Mercer prevent himself from metagaming in a world that he himself created? Play a complete ditz of a character who's just happy to be there!
  • The Oh No Plateau in episode 2. Since it's a magical and not geological phenomenon due to a well-placed sigil, nobody ever calls it an active volcano despite filling all the criteria.
  • Dariax mishearing the "gem" question into "jam" could just be how the Byroden accent sounds to him.
  • Opal beating Liesl in the Byroden pageant becomes more of an awesome moment when you realize that the temp characters just reuse the mains' stats, and Liesl has been using the stats of Fy'ra, who's deliberately overpowered compared to the rest of the party.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Robbie Daymond usually voices Spider-Man, and episode 5 turns into the CR equivalent of One More Day when Dorian basically sells his soul to the Spider Queen.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Back in the day, it was Liam O'Brien who introduced Sam Riegel to the game, ultimately leading to the birth of Critical Role - and now Aimee Carrero is only here because she was "recruited" by Sam, paying it forward as it were. And she's turning into their MVP.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Robbie coincidentally showed up in a spider shirt (revealed to be a Chrollo t-shirt) in episode 2, the same episode where it was revealed that the circlet the group was holding was indeed a Vestige of the Spider Queen.
  • Not long after the season finale of Loki was released, episode 4 revealed that variants are apparently canon in Exandria, when the party is attacked by an Alternate Self Fearne and Mister.
  • In a similar vein, a throwaway reference to Kansas ends up being declared canon for Exandria. Episode 4 would also reveal that a Deep South town in Exandria can be a thing.
  • In episode 3, Liam's character Orym, the male halfling fighter, gets dragged into Opal's newest shenanigans by somehow passing for a human girl. One week later, Orym has no role in the Byroden pageant, and Liam ends up getting formally saddled with another female character.
    • Orym resigns himself to going with Opal's plan, and Liam's face when he calls Aimee "Mother" became memetic. Fast forward to Ashley's One-Shot, and Liam and party are on a spaceship with a computer voice that they call "Mother".
  • Another one from episode 4 - Matt's character Dariax decides on the fly to dress up identical to Dorian in the Byroden pageant. Episode 8 kicks off with Matt (recorded after the actual game) dressing up as Dorian for real.
  • It happens again when Dariax decided to dress up extra shiny for the final round, and winds up turning himself chrome, leading to Dorian calling him a "tiny robot". Fast forward to campaign 3, and Dorian really does become teammates with a tiny robot.
  • The Dimension 20 campaign Misfits and Magic had one character gain a piglet familiar, and naming it after her favourite movie - but instead of the glaringly obvious "Babe" she calls it "Terminator 2". In the Kymal adventure Opal also gains a familiar and calls it "Ted 2" - not only naming it after her sister, but conveniently also the name of a movie.
  • Anjali Bhimani would later appear regularly in another show about a young girl who gains powers from a Clingy MacGuffin.
• Ho Yay:
  • Dorian and Dariax are pretty touchy-feely and seem the closest out of the rest of the group, usually slinging an arm around one another. Dorian also looks out for Dariax the most. Although that could likely be due to the fact that Dariax is usually out of the loop in what the group is doing or trying to do.
  • In episode 3 as Orym and the others manage to sneak away after creating their distractions, Liam describes it as Orym glaring at Dorian with "the look a spouse gives a spouse".
  • As the group meets Gilmore, he sighs in exasperation as he asks if Dariax was going to continue touching the crown. Dariax claims he isn't, leading Gilmore to respond, "Don't you lie to me, you beautiful boy". Dariax actually seems to blush and smile as he fidgets bashfully.
    Dariax: (clearly pleased) I'll try not to.
  • Dariax attempts to manifest his ideal stylish outfit and it turns out to be Dorian's clothes. While Dorian is seething, Dariax just turns to him and gives him a wink. Then when Dorian tries to use the cloak to change his outfit, he ends up with Dariax's clothes which are still dwarven size. Dariax just happily says he's flattered as he pushes Dorian out onto the stage and is the only other person besides Fearne cheering on Dorian.
  • When Dorian goes out in his evening wear (that fits this time) and returns to the group Dariax's only response is, "Hot!" Some have even joked that as Robbie was describing Dorian's clothes, Dariax was having a "face journey".
  • Episode 5 has Dariax waking up from a nightmare while trying to pretend he wasn't scared, he asks if he could sleep next to his friends to feel a little safe. Dorian immediately offers and asks if he wants to sleep back to back.
    Dorian: Back to back?
    Dariax: Back to back.
  • The way Liam describes Orym taking watch in a tree seeing Dariax scoot over to Dorian almost makes him sound like a bit of a Shipper on Deck.
  • Towards the end of the episode as the group lays down to rest Dariax asks Dorian "back to back?" to which Dorian chuckles at but agrees to.
  • During the group's drinking game in episode 6, Orym admits he checked out Dariax's butt while skinny dipping and says it wasn't half bad".
• I Knew It!: More than a few Critters that were familiar with the Tal'Dorei Campaign Guide recognized the dark circlet found in Episode 1 as the Circlet of Barbed Vision, a Vestige of the Divergence with ties to The Spider Queen, one of the Betrayer Gods. This was confirmed in Episode 2.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: Some viewers feel that 8 episodes wasn't enough to explain all the plot points introduced or explore the villains' motivations, with the series ending on more questions than answers.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • There are a plethora of comments about how deeply chaotic the ExU party is, with many viewers absolutely dumbfounded as to how they managed to be even more chaotic the Mighty Nein. Definitely not helping is the fact that the party's average Intelligence score is an 11 (around 12 when Fy'ra arrives).
  • Matt's terrible luck with rolls as a player has been memed to hell and back, with quite a few questioning if he made contact with Wil Wheaton before every game.
  • Most discussions of Exandria Unlimited, especially the first and most controversial season, will inevitably reference a Reddit comment that goes over two hypothetical executives running through the story in a hypothetical pitch meeting, both as a humorous summary of the season and for its biting critique of the storyline that sums up the major issues of the season.
• Nausea Fuel: Episode 7. Any food that has directly touched the inside of the Circlet of the Spider Queen starts rotting immediately; eating it regardless of that fact makes it turn to ash and start sprouting live spiders. In your mouth.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Dariax with Black Eyes of Evil thanks to the Vestige of the Spider Queen remains completely nonplussed about his condition, until he walks into Gilmore's shop, which has lots of magic mirrors, whereupon he starts seeing all his friends covered in spiders in the mirrors.
  • Episode 4 has evil!Fearne, a future version of Fearne that killed everyone in the party and took the Circlet of Barbed Vision for herself. To put it simply, she is very unsettling, with zero remorse for her actions and a hunger to destroy anything in her path.
  • Episode 6. Opal is so messed up from being tranq-darted and nearly kidnapped that she goes Ax-Crazy, gutting one assailant open like a fish, then taking his severed head just to taunt the remaining assailant with it.
  • Episode 8. Opal puts on the Circlet of Barbed Vision to save her friends from Myr'atta, with the crown embedding itself into her head. She then decides to slit Myr'atta throat down to her spine, resolving the elf to an excruciating death.
• Signature Scene: Opal's big plan to overturn the fey crocodile, which has been likened to Legolas soloing the oliphaunt.
• Unexpected Character: Anjali Bhimani's surprise appearance in Episode 4. Given this series is only a mini-campaign compared to the main show, nobody expected there would be any guest stars.

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Calamity

• Complete Monster: Asmodeus, the Lord of Hells, was once a celestial who was imprisoned alongside the other Betrayer Gods for trying to exterminate mortalkind. When the mage Vespin Chloras tried to usurp him, Asmodeus reduced Vespin to a mindless, flayed, enslaved puppet who he then used to release himself and the other Betrayer Gods from their prison. Around the same time, Asmodeus began to appear to the paladin Zerxus Ilerez in dreams and visions, presenting himself to Zerxus as a wounded and misunderstood victim of circumstance in order to play to the paladin's own belief in redemption and feelings of alienation and mistrust and manipulating Zerxus into bringing him all the way into the Material Plane. Once Asmodeus is freed, he kills Zerxus three times within the span of one second while delivering a blistering monologue about how he has always hated mortals and his intent to imprison and torment all mortalkind and the other gods for eternity, then threatens Zerxus's son unless the paladin agrees to become his champion. During the later days of the Calamity, Asmodeus repeated the same trick on the goddess Raei, convincing her that he was redeemable and setting up a meeting between the two that resulted in him and his followers massacring all of her worshippers, to the point that her faith is only just starting to recover centuries later in Campaign 1.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Viewers with ADHD and autism identified with Laerryn's intense focus on her love of magic, her impatience with social niceties, and her tendency to fidget with her jewelry. Aabria even describes her entering the party and fiddling with something similar to a fidget toy.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: For a character who was improvised on the spot as the kind of person Loquatius would have as a plus-one, Bolo from Aeor became an immediate hit for generating not only comedic fanarts with her accent and dialogue, but also serious Epileptic Trees given her home city and the potential foreshadowing in her dialogue. Even the crew discussed theories about her and how she might have survived in the wrap-up.
• Epileptic Trees: A fan theory brought up in the campaign wrap-up is that Cerrit's daughter use Patia's orb of knowledge to start what would later become the Cobalt Reserve.
• Evil Is Cool: Brennan Lee Mulligan's performance as Asmodeus has been near universally praised. In addition to being absolutely terrifying, he's also quite the Manipulative Bastard, tricking a good chunk of the party (and indeed, quite a bit of the viewerbase as well) into believing that he was wrongfully targeted by the Prime Deities all along. It only gets better when he effortlessly counterspells Zerxus's attempts at self-defense and casts Time Stop twice in rapid succession, proving that he is far beyond anything the party is capable of.
  Asmodeus: "My greatest heartbreak is that when I have collected every last mortal soul and all of my siblings into my pit, that I will only have eternity to punish them."
• Fanfic Fuel: Finale has left many possible plot points ripe for the fanfic exploration, including:
  • Cerrit and his family's fate in face of the Calamity, as well as potential legacy.
  • A possiblity that Laerryn and Loquatius may have surivived, see He's Just Hiding below.
  • Either Loquatius' fake confession or Patia's Orb resurfacing in modern times.
  • Evandrin and Elias' quest to rescue Zerxus' soul from the clutches of Asmodeus.
• Fridge Horror: Part of the finale focuses on the efforts of the Ring of Brass to protect the people of Avalir and evacuate both sister cities. It’s made clear that despite their efforts, many of the city’s refugees didn’t survive. Those who evacuated to somewhere else in Domunas died when the continent was destroyed. Only those who flew or teleported further away had a chance to live.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • One of the "highlights" of campaign 1 was Marisha's infamous goldfish dive, which started with her yelling out "we're gods!" and ends with her as a goldfish mangled on the rocks below. Now she plays Patia Porco, a wizard with deliberately blasphemous beliefs who meets a more gruesome fate.
  • Opal's big plan to "rehab" the Spider Queen's image, believing that she'd "just gotten a bad rap" over the last few centuries, gets turned into a series-wide gag. Calamity would reveal how close to the truth she really was (though of course the source, Asmodeus, is hardly the most trustworthy of sources). Turns on its head when Asmodeus is proven to be the manipulator he was deemed to be.
  • Sam's Campaign 3 character was intended as a Warrior Therapist, who briefly plays couples therapist in one notable scene. Sam's character in Calamity is half of a divorced couple that really needed therapy and end up inadvertently causing the Calamity.
• He's Just Hiding: Unlike the other members of the Ring of Brass who don't make it off of Avalir, Laerryn and Loquatius end the last session with positive hit points, albeit immediately at the mercy of continent-rending forces. Needless to say, fans immediately came up with ideas as to how they could have plane-shifted away or recovered enough HP to escape and become ancestors or predecessors of modern-day characters.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Cerrit fleeing the collapsing Avalir is oddly similar to the famous "Running Up That Hill" scene from Stranger Things.
• I Knew It!: The moment Domunas is compared to a smile on Exandria's face, Twitch chat immediately and correctly guessed that the continent will be destroyed, becoming the chain of islands known as the Shattered Teeth in modern-day Exandria.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "WIZARD HUBRIS"^note Many fans actively made fun of just how arrogant the Ring of Brass is towards the gods, even stating that their actions are what actually caused the Calamity (even before it turns out that was correct).
  • Sam's Final Form^note It has not gone unnoticed that Loquatious Seelie was designed to be Sam's ad-reading, cosplaying antics taken up to eleven as a literal talking head Shapeshifter.
  • I can fix him. ^note Zerxus naively believing that he can show the Lord of Hells some kindness and bring him to the side of good has many fans comparing him to people with delusional views of bad romantic partners.
  • Cerritos Groupon ^note What Google suggests one might be searching for if you type in the full name of Travis' character, Cerrit Agrupnin
• Nightmare Fuel: Just about any scene with The Lord Of the Hells, especially in the finale.
  • In particular, when Zerxus finally sees the true face of the devil he had been sympathizing with. That at his core, there is an infinite hatred for all mortalkind, and an unyielding desire to make every single soul suffer for all eternity. And that even when the Lord of the Hells was a being of golden divinity, that hatred was always there.
  • One moment in the finale has hundreds of people crowding a teleportation platform to get out of the city as devils begin invading. The engineer tells them to back off, as there are too many people on the platform, but then a higher-ranking mage Commands him to activate it anyway - and because there were too many people, everyone on it is immediately bisected.
  • Also from the finale, Brennan very calmly turning to Marisha and asking if she thinks Patia is weaker at the shoulder or the elbow.
  • As the Tree of Names explodes, it takes a large chunk of the players' magical items with it. Brennan proceeds to describe how each exploding item maims its owner in horrible, gruesome detail: Patia's Ring of Mind Shielding blows three fingers off her one remaining hand and blasts her mind with psychic feedback, Loquatius's Swiftweave Clothing shreds his skin to ribbons, Nydas's stomach is pierced with a spray of molten gold as his Bag of Holding goes, Laerryn's Ring of Masks shotgun-blasts ceramic shards directly into her face and neck, and Zerxus's shield gets torn to shreds and tears into his torso. Immediately after, Brennan tells Marisha that if Patia's Staff of Power had failed its save, it would have triggered its Retributive Strike and exploded, likely killing everyone in the room instantly.
• Signature Scene:
  • Loquatius' final speech, an amazing piece of roleplaying that manages to be tragic, heartfelt, clever and funny all at once, aptly described by Brennan as "a moment where the player gives you a nat 20 without having to roll a die at all".
  • If the amount of fan arts inspired by the moment is any indicator, Zerxus tending to a wounded Asmodeus is a close second on the fanbase's mind.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: In contrast to the mixed reception the previous ExU campaigns received, Calamity drew rave reviews from the fandom, with many people rating it as some of the best storytelling Critical Role has produced to date.
• Unexpected Character: Purvan Suul, Champion of the Raven Queen prior to Vax'ildan, shows up in the flesh in Episode 1, along with his wolf companion Galdric. Purvan last appeared as a corpse in Campaign 1, and while he became a legend during the Calamity, here he is not yet well-known or well-respected. Galdric, meanwhile, became Whitestone's protector after Vax acquired the Raven's Slumber amulet from Purvan's tomb. Travis, Marisha, Sam, and the streamers were floored by the character's appearance at a pre-Calamity party.
• The Woobie: Poor Elias. He lost one dad and didn't see another for 7 years. As the world is ending around him, Zerxus comes back looking like a literal monster, gave him a speech and a journal, and didn't so much as give him a hug (not even expecting that the boy would touch his hands to get the journal) before jumping on his griffon and flying away. Elias is most likely going to torment himself for not sending the spell kite every day for the rest of his life. "I don't know why I didn't send it. I don't know why I didn't-"

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