YMMV / Critical Role: Campaign Three

• Accidental Innuendo: In episode 3, Orym is injured and Dorian needs physical contact to cast a healing spell, prompting this exchange:
  Robbie: God, I just...I wanna touch Orym!
  Laura: *waggles her eyebrows until Liam elbows her* What? He said it.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Bertrand Bell slacking off during the test fight with Esteross could just be because he knew he was still on thin ice with the latter, and that the optics from ganging up against him would look really bad in retrospect.
  • Was Delilah sincere about the stone being a hazard to the Hells, and trying to do Laudna a favor in her own selfish way? Or was it just a pretense for taking the power for herself and drive a wedge between Laudna and Imogen?
  • Did Fearne truly leave fate up to a coin toss, or was she going to choose to bring back Orym regardless, since she was closer to him? She doesn't even reveal what side the coin landed on. Did she then place blame on the Changebringer because she hated having to choose between her friends?
  • Liliana Temult, Imogen's mother, spawns a lot of this due to her Mama Bear love for her daughter contrasting with her working with Ludinus to free Predathos. The players, their characters, and the audience are all unsure of what to make of her, with many theorycrafting on if she's a redeemable woman led astray who's actions are all from her genuine desire to ensure her daughter's safe future, or a selfish monster who doesn't really love Imogen so much as the idea of Imogen she built in her head of the scared girl who needs her help and will be grateful once all is done.
• Arc Fatigue:
  • The search for Armand Treshi and the Bassuras arc, beginning in Episode 17 and ending in Episode 35; the arc itself has several sidequests that take multiple episodes, and it also features the contentious Dusk arc (see Base-Breaking Character) that some fans feel drags on too long and ends rather clumsily.
  • Some Critters felt the Team Wildemount party split arc starting in Episode 52 carried on too long, and want to see Laudna, Ashton and Orym again. This was likely done because Marisha needed to train for and recover from Creator Clash.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Fresh Cut Grass. They were initially well-liked for being an adorable and unique character concept (a small, sweet-natured Automaton non-religious Cleric with a Southern accent) with potential ties to tantalizing Aeor lore left hanging from Campaign 2 and intriguing backstory involving their creator and former party. Interest only increased when their past caught up to them and it was revealed they were once Manchurian Agent Killer Robot and elements of this programming remain and they attempted to repair their strained relationship with Dancer. However, there were always some who found their therapy attempts naive at best and full of Condescending Compassion at worst. But the base really shattered when F.C.G committed to becoming a Religious Robot for the Changebringer. What seemed to be the end of an arc about finding purpose instead caused them to devolve into a religious fundamentalist bordering on Straw Character, right when the campaign's core plot took a Rage Against the Heavens bent. While this could have introduced an interesting ideological split in the party, FCG’s proselytizing is instead Played for Laughs, and he rarely interjects valid points to the party’s many debates over the gods. There's now heavy divide between those who find this F.C.G offensively funny, just plain offensive, or derailing a potentially far more interesting character arc about trauma recovery and/or Aeorean history.
  • Dusk a.k.a Yu Suffiad is an incredibly divisive character, to the point where if you search their name on Google, "Dusk Critical Role annoying" is one of the suggestions. Many fans found their antics hilarious and enjoyed their fun dynamics with the party, especially Laudna and Fearne. Others thought the very same antics were annoying, slowed plot progression, and messed with Bell's Hells' relationships while they were still developing. The Reveal partway through their arc, that they're a villainous changeling agent in disguise didn't exactly help matters. While most agree that post-Internal Reveal Yu is a much more interesting Love to Hate character, supporters feel it justifies their earlier behavior as Obfuscating Stupidity while to detractors the façade was too obnoxious and overstayed its welcome, and that Erika seemed to be trying to goad the party into PvP past the point that it was clear they weren't biting, making the scene tiresome rather than tense. The way the reveal was handled is also divisive, with some feeling it would've worked better in a film or TV show than in a D&D game (where most of the table wasn't looped in on the twist until it happened), or was done better by Bor'Dor later on.
  • Some find Otohan Thull to be genuinely intimidating, especially with their Hero Killer status and similarities to Darth Vader, as well as the sheer power they demonstrate thanks to them effectively having two different Fighter subclasses at the same time. Others, however, deride her for being a boring Invincible Villain, feeling that the attempts to make her cool and badass wind up making her look like she's trying too hard and that her lack of clear motivation makes her sound more like she's delivering action movie one-liners than expressing a sincerely-held belief in anything. The fact that a significant portion of her intimidation (the shadow clones) comes from her wearing a backpack does not help.
  • Laudna. Many fans who loved her from the beginning found that the introduction to the Predathos dilemma and especially the team split arc did a number on her popularity. This was due in large part to her being the most vocally against the protection of the gods, often accusing them of rewriting the history of their war with the titans in their favor; some portions of the fandom felt as though it was less the character coming through and more the actor, as Laudna repeats several talking points made by Keyleth in campaign one, leading some to feel that Marisha’s own views on religion are coloring the character. A particular point is her antagonism towards the church of Pelor in Issylra; while having tension with Pelor would make perfect sense given their deep history with Whitestone and her feelings towards it, none of that is brought up in the story, making her antagonism feel less personal or justified. Others adore Laudna regardless, seeing her as one of the most complex, multilayered, yet still endlessly fun and entertaining player characters in the show’s history. Still others have disliked her from the beginning, finding her to be mostly aesthetic and shallow with little real thought put into her beyond what would be creepy and spooky, and found that her potential had increasingly diminishing returns over the course of the campaign. This segment of fans actually enjoyed Laudna during the Issylra arc, feeling that she was finally able to start coming into her own outside of Delilah and being attached at the hip to Imogen, and were instead most frustrated when her genuine trauma and anger over everything that happened fizzled out into nothing because Imogen kissed her.
• Broken Base:
  • Chetney using his werewolf form to attack and terrorize a shopkeeper in Jrusar over her prices. Half of the fanbase found it hilarious, the other were disturbed that what they viewed as brutally Disproportionate Retribution was Played for Laughs and Chetney remained a heroic character.
  • Bell's Hells' kneejerk antagonism towards the gods has proven divisive. One segment of the fandom finds their skepticism towards the Prime Deities refreshing, viewing the divine powers of Exandria as self-righteous bullies, useless bystanders, and short-sighted zealots who caused the whole issue with Predathos in the first place, and are justifiably receiving their first serious criticism from mortals in centuries. Other fans view the Hells as selfish, ungrateful Hollywood Atheists who demand divine favor without doing the work of cultivating a relationship with the gods (even after attacking a temple, slaughtering an angel and summoning a demon while doing so), ignore centuries of documented historical divine intervention in the world for the better, and refuse to put aside their grievances towards the gods despite the fact that even the most callous deity is probably an improvement over a being called "Predathos, the World-Eater." Some have also taken issue with how several of the Prime Deities have Taken Levels In Jerkass to facilitate the debate, with The Dawnfather especially feeling like an entirely different god between Campaigns 1 and 3. Only Orym and Fresh Cut Grass have so far offered a serious defense of the Prime Deities, and F.C.G., being a newly Religious Robot, takes the zeal of the converted so far as to seem like a Deliberately Bad Example of a cleric. The other big issue that made fans grow more hostile towards the team's hesitation towards helping the gods was that the arguments became very frequent and circular, dragging sessions to a halt as the party repeated discussion points over and over.
  • Imogen and Laudna's relationship. It has many fans who love how supportive and caring and devoted they are toward each other, but others feel that their codependence is toxic and unhealthy in a way that isn't being acknowledged for what it is, and that the lack of any real conflict or movement in their relationship outside of simply "being together" makes it uninteresting and wears out its welcome quickly.
  • Bell's Hells' character progression, being essentially the inverse of Campaign 2's Mighty Nein (who started out as mistrusting Nominal Heroes but gradually developed into True Companions). Bell's Hells' initial openness with each-other was at first considered a breath of fresh air and antidote to the Slow-Paced Beginning issues Campaign 2 suffered from. As the campaign progressed, however, the Hells fell further into self-destructive habits and toxic mentalities, failing to address their multitude of issues and in some cases making them even worse; fans were disappointed when Orym, The Heart and Only Sane Man of the group, was seemingly dragged down with them when fans expected him to lift the others up. Opinions are divided between those who find this dynamic interesting and a change from past campaigns, and those who think it makes the party hard to invest in and that inter-party arguments distract the group from making story progress too often.
  • Delilah Briarwood’s presence in the campaign. Some fans were excited and interested in seeing a new version of the character, and thought that the battle against her in Laudna’s dreamscape to revive Laudna felt like a fitting and climactic final end for the character, but when she came back after episode 63, fans began to weary of her Invincible Villain status, especially given that there doesn’t really seem to be much for her to do. (She could be The Corruptor for the dark and even villainous things Laudna has done in the back half of the campaign, but she vocally advises against some of those things more often than not. It seems like she’s almost undergoing a redemption arc, but Laudna’s own slide into villainy leaves that more in the realm of a Hazy-Feel Turn.) Other fans were wary of the reveal from the get-go and increasingly began to dislike it, feeling that Laudna engaged very little with Delilah; that her being present at all undercuts the finality of Campaign 1; and that having her as a patron and not an original character feels like it was tacked-on fanservice with little thought put into it. While some early critics of Delilah's return are actually pleased with the direction she's headed in now that Laudna has begun to form more of a relationship with her and are excited by the idea of a corruption arc, they are still cautious due to how long it took for her story to go anywhere.
  • "Shardgate," or the incident wherein Ashton attempted to absorb The Shard of Rau'shan without the party's knowledge besides Fearne. The primary divide comes from the aftermath when Ashton did manage to succeed, only for Matt in the next episode to walk back Ashton's success and have them vomit the Shard back up. Some fans were against Ashton even trying as the Shard had been earmarked for Fearne and felt that Ashton going behind the team's back was deceitful or a power grab due to already having one Shard in him, and that Matt had left warnings that absorbing two Shards at once was impossible. Other fans pointed out that Fearne had expressly said both in and out of character that she didn't want the Shard to begin with due to fears regarding its corruptive power, she consented to Ashton taking it for himself, and that Matt's warnings in-character were vague enough to be read as that an attempt to absorb the Shard could work. Regardless, it's generally agreed to be a poor-taste move that Matt then punished Ashton for succeeding both by having him vomit the Shard up and then hitting him with a permanent stat reduction, due to Taliesin and Ashley both feeling Matt's warnings hinted that it would work.
• Contested Sequel: Reception to Campaign 3 has been far more mixed (and outright negative in some corners of the Internet) than prior campaigns. Primary criticisms began with the party composition that dovetailed into concerns about the story, mechanical story beats, the transition to pre-recorded episodes, the circular arguments about the Gods and the Predathos storyline that overtakes the majority of the campaign. While there are still fans enjoying the ride, even previously hyper-positive corners of the fandom like the Critical Role subreddit have seen an uptick in criticism of the campaign's management.
• Epileptic Trees: In Episode 66, the reveal that Orym grew up with toys made by Chetney, plus the chemistry between Chetney and Orym's mom, lead some of the cast and fans to wonder if Chetney was somehow Orym's dad, with a couple making Insight Checks to see if they could spot a resemblance. Liam added fuel to the fire, saying Orym had always been a little small even for a halfling. Others wondered if another gnome, such as Scanlan Shorthalt, was Orym's father, or even if Chetney was Scanlan's father (possible due to Chetney's immense age).
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Ira Wendagoth, the Nightmare King, a wonderfully creepy and sinister fey who, against all odds, winds up working alongside Bell's Hells more often than he opposes them. And yet, he never loses that sinister edge.
• Evil Is Cool: While the leader of the Ruby Vanguard, Ludinus took a while to gain this reaction due to staying out of the action, Episode 51 absolutely cemented him as this in the eyes of the Critters. The Long Game Batman Gambit he pulled on Keyleth and Vax was widely considered spectacular.
• Fanon:
  • Fan artists often depict Imogen with glasses similar to Laura’s, partly to emphasize the introverted quiet side of the character. The actor hasn’t mentioned glasses and the character portrait doesn’t show them, but they’ve become a remarkably consistent design element after only a few episodes.
  • Many of the depictions of Fearne drinking out of F.C.G show said straw being a crazy straw, despite the fact that no one specified it as such.
  • Fearne wasn’t a compulsive thief when she was first introduced in EXU. Over time it’s become one of her defining character traits. When she took a level in Rogue at level 6, many fans joked that the rest of the party made Ashley do it so Fearne would be less likely to fail her sleight of hand checks.
  • Orym is sometimes drawn with a tail, despite lacking one in the official art.
• Genius Bonus:
  • As the party visits the Dreamscape Theatre, a barrage of jokes about musical theatre are made, and the cast specifically mentions that some people watching will know what they're talking about.
    • The Phantom of the Opera is namechecked, with a mention of the chandelier still being up after a performance, and a joke about how the cast is completely done with it after playing it for so long. As a demonstration for how fed up the cast is, Liam O'Brien sings a few bars from Les Misérables (specifically "Stars") in a monotone - Les Mis was the longest-running musical on the West End. This also may be a reference to the fact that Sam appeared in a Broadway production of Les Mis in his youth.
    • Party members ask about playbills being on the seat. A playbill (or program) is traditionally left for theatregoers in the U.S. before every performance, containing useful information about the production, cast list and biography, and advertisements. Many theatre fans collect and trade playbills as a hobby.
    • Liam and Taliesin have their characters casually flout theatrical superstitions by saying "Macbeth" and whistling.
  • A couple pop up again when the party roast their opponents in episode 21, with Sam making a quick reference to The Milgram experiment, and Liam giving a blink and you'll miss it reference to William Blake's "Tyger, Tyger."
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Fearne came up with the infamous saying "time is a weird soup", which hits differently now that we know she'd been subjected to Year Inside, Hour Outside, growing for about a hundred years when less than ten years had passed.
  • Marisha jokes in episode 30 that campaigns always seem to really get going around the late twenties/early thirties episodes, citing the first appearance of the Briarwoods and Molly's death in previous campaigns. While she was talking about the party encountering Ira again and learning a lot more about Ruidus, it can feel darkly prescient of episode 33 where multiple characters go down, Orym and Fearne fail all their death saving throws, and Laudna is sitting at two fails when the episode ends on a cliffhanger.
  • Bor'Dor's first on-screen action is to cast a high-level Lightning Bolt at Bell's Hells in a panic, and it's Played for Laughs. Given The Reveal in Episode 63, this wasn't an accident, but a deliberate assassination attempt.
  • In episode 59, after being ambushed by monsters the party sets up an elaborate decoy campsite by propping up the bodies of two Ruby Vanguard members, animating them with Unseen Servant, and even casting Magic Mouth so that they appear to talk when approached.^note This scene spawned the "I don't like it" recurring joke. This funny scene of the party bonding becomes much darker after the reveal that Bor'Dor is a Ruby Vanguard stealth agent, meaning he had to watch the bodies of people from his organization strung up and used as puppets in a grotesque display. This is made even darker by the implication that Bor'Dor may have known them personally.
  • A formerly heartwarming moment while camping in Episode 62 becomes far less so after the next episode and reveals on 4-Sided Dive. Bor'Dor smokes an enchanted pipe that visualizes your proudest accomplishment, which for Bor'Dor is being accepted by the group. The pipe wasn't lying, this is his finest accomplishment... deceiving the group into accepting him.
  • Episode 91 comes just after X-Men '97 episode 5 - both involve a Character Death from a particularly explosive Heroic Sacrifice.
  • During the near-TPK fight in episode 33 against Otohan Thull, Imogen brokenly pleads with a hiding F.C.G telepathically, "You have to save them." Episode 91 saw a rematch in which Letters did just that - saving their party from certain death by exploding his core and charging into Thull for a Taking You with Me, on top of sacrificing a high-level spell slot to bring Chetney back from the dead at the very start of the fight. Imogen had her circlet off, so she most likely heard his final thoughts, which were about the party and how important they were to him.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Dorian Storm getting involved in a musical duel in episode 6 leads to Robbie rolling with advantage, somehow scoring two natural 20s in a row. Aimee Carrero was able to pull that off during Critical Role: Exandria Unlimited at disadvantage. Travis would eventually smash that record with two 20s rolled in the same throw.
  • When Chetney revealed his "RTA" tattoo stood for "Recognize The Alpha," Laudna remarked that "I thought it stood for Royal Tinkering Academy!" Many episodes later, we learn that Laudna wasn't far off; it actually stands for Rexxentrum Toy Authority.
  • After Nott and Beau have an emotional breakthrough moment in campaign 2, episode 84, Taliesin wanted to know if they could make a therapy character class as a bard subclass. Smash cut to this campaign and Sam (Nott's player, formerly a bard himself as Scanlan in campaign 1) is playing an Empathy Domain cleric, essentially a therapist bot. Sam revealed on Twitter that this aside from Taliesin partially inspired Letters' concept.
  • Episode 45 starts with Ashley flubbing her part of the ad reading, with "horse immortality" somehow read into "horse immorality". The previous episode involved Fearne getting involved in an orgy and turning into a horse.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming:
  • Southern Gothic has been a popular ship name for Imogen and Laudna. Similarly, TombStone has evolved for the Laudna/Ashton ship.
  • The brief teamup of Pate de Rolo and Mother (Prism's crow familiar) led to the hilarious but oddly appropriate Motherfucker.
  • Fearne/Ashton being teased for so long led to a whole wave of these, like Mountain Goat. There's also Fearne/Chetney, who get names like Horn Dog and Fearniture.
• I Knew It!:
  • Bor'Dor being part of the Ruby Vanguard was guessed at by many fans long before it was revealed.
  • Many fans predicted from episode 1 that Bertrand Bell would die so Travis could play a different character. Despite the speculation, fans were still genuinely sad to see him go when he died an Undignified Death in Episode 3.
  • As soon as Laudna revealed she was from Whitestone, fans started to speculate that she had some connection to the Briarwoods, two popular theories being she was either a necromantic experiment of Delilah’s, or Delilah and Sylas’s daughter. Episode 6 reveals that she was killed shortly after the coup, and was resurrected by Delilah, who became her patron. After this reveal, some further speculated that Laudna was one of the bodies hung from the Sun Tree, which was confirmed in Episode 17.
  • Quite a few fans speculated about Chetney as soon as he was introduced. Namely, that Chetney was not actually a Rogue. Theories cited his unusual stat spread ^note Rogues are Fragile Speedsters, whereas Chetney's highest stat is in Strength, his unorthodox equipment^note Rogues don't have medium armor proficiency, and Chetney's Armor Class was far too high for anything short of a breastplate, and Travis' penchant for being a Trolling Creator. Episode 11 revealed that Chetney is an Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter, which had been foreshadowed by Chetney's interest in tracking down a werewolf named Gurge, his suspiciously accurate sense of smell and knowledge of supernatural creatures, and Travis' personal enthusiasm for werewolves.
  • After the story of what happened to Fresh Cut Grass' creator and fellow robots was revealed, fans immediately speculated that he was secretly a Killer Robot that killed them himself. Episode 31 has Ashton speculate on this very thing after Letters snaps and attacks the party from getting too stressed out. Episode 32 confirms it with a firsthand account from Dancer.
  • The chat in Episode 91 was banking on F.C.G. to do something awesome and save the party against Otohan Thull. They were proven right very quickly when he took the villain out with his core bomb.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Some fans of Campaign One started watching at episode 36, as it's when the party goes to Whitestone and interacts with Keyleth, Percy, Vex, and Pike and features cameos from three of Percy and Vex's children (previously revealed in a family portrait in Tal'Dorei Reborn).
• Love to Hate: Erika Ishii as Yu Suffiad deliberately plays up the Trolling Manipulative Bastard aspects, but less like your typical BBEG and more like The Joker. They even get to leave in one piece.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Ted Grasso. ^ExplanationFresh Cut Grass has a similar voice and personality type to the titular character of Ted Lasso, prompting the nickname.
  • Vax Orb^{Explanation (Spoilers)}In episode fifty one, Vax intervenes in a fight to save Keyleth, only for it turn out to be a Batman Gambit on Ludinus' part and he is compressed into a sphere and used to complete the plan to free Predathos. After the initial shock wore off, fans got to work creating memes about Vax being made into an orb.
  • Wererobot^{Explanation (Spoilers)}After getting into a fight with Chetney in his wolf form, FRIDA apparently failed a constitution saving throw, with Matt leaving it on a cliffhanger as to how it will effect them. Jokes about how a non-organic aeormaton can become a werewolf quickly ensued, especially with the cast comparing the idea to robotic dog toys.
  • Otohan never bathes. ^{Explanation (Spoilers)}The team are able to place a ring onto Otohan's body that lets them scry on her during the second half of the campaign, which notably always works due to Otohan never noticing the ring until it was too late. This lead to fans mockingly wondering if Otohan just never took off her armour or at all bathed for the entire second half of the campaign to never take off the ring or notice it hidden on her person.
• One True Threesome: Dorian/Orym/Fearne is a very popular ship due to the three of them having a very strong bond and being true companions who are always looking out for each other at any moment.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • Every moment with Dusk becomes this once its revealed they're an assassin targeting the Calloways, Fearne included. Even leaving the party doesn't change anything as they're a Shapeshifter and could return as anybody else.
  • After episode 63, it doesn't have to be a shapeshifter either.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Imodna (Imogen/Laudna); Laudmoore (Ashton/Laudna); Ashrym (Ashton/Orym); Callowmoore (Fearne/Ashton); Callowpea (Fearne/Chetney); and Imogearne (Imogen/Fearne) are among the more popular ships in the party, in addition to Dorym (Dorian/Orym) carrying over from EXU.
• Rewatch Bonus: As the cast themselves note after Episode 63, a lot of Bor'Dor's actions take on a new meaning with the reveal of his true backstory and motives. His first act was to "accidentally" hit the party with a high-level Lightning Bolt, he seemed eager to kill the Dawnfather missionaries and their Angel despite the townsfolk trying to resolve things non-lethally, and his story about his family had numerous holes.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: A variation in that Imogen/Laudna shippers have few competing rival ships and the relationship is canonically romantic, but it has a contingent of fans who will viciously attack and harass fans who express that they don't care for it, or who criticize Imogen or Laudna or point out their characters' flaws in any way.
• Shocking Moments:
  • Bertrand's death at the end of Episode 3, having been killed by Duggar, the same dwarf who murdered Danas.
  • In episode 17, the reveal that Laudna was one of the bodies hanging from the Sun Tree in Campaign 1 makes her the biggest throwback character of the campaign thus far, predating Bertrand Bell. It also makes her the only post-Campaign 1 character to appear in The Legend of Vox Machina.
  • In Episode 26, Matt tells everyone except guest Erika Ishii to leave the table. Normally this means a Troubled Backstory Flashback, but in this case we get Dusk speaking with their boss, using a completely different voice, and discussing ending the Calloway line. Erika's guest character is very likely an antagonist, and Fearne and the rest of the Hells unwittingly led them right to their targets.
  • The back half of Episode 33 in its entirety; to put it mildly, Otohan mops the floor with the Hells, using her Echo Knight abilities, martial prowess, and legendary actions to cut through the party like a blender while having a level of mobility that would border on Teleport Spam. It also leads to the largest player body count in a single encounter, with both Orym and Fearne dying and Laudna on the cusp of death (with only one failed death save needed to push her over) by the episode's end. Finally, just to put the cherry on this sundae, Imogen finally gives in to her Ruidusborn nature and, in a cataclysmic display of power, seemingly summons a portion Ruidus's landscape to Exandria before causing a diegetic Fade to White.
  • Episode 51 is just one shocking moment after another. Beau and Caleb arrive but are captured in short order and restrained, Ira and Xandis show up for their air strike but Ludinus renders it useless with a force field, Keyleth then appears in Earth Elemental form and is instantly subdued and hacked up until she reverts, at which point Vax'ildan shows up and saves her from the killing blow, only to have played right into Ludinus' hands as he is compressed into a lens for the telescope and is the final piece for the Ruby Vanguard's plan- enabling the villains to send a beam of red energy to Ruidus to release Predathos. After that, the heroes are separated and half are stranded on the other side of the planet.
  • The sudden betrayal by Bor'dor in Episode 63 shocked Critters, given Utkarsh Ambudkar did an extremely good job at Obfuscating Stupidity with his character. While many fans suspected he was more than he appeared, few expected him to be Evil All Along. This leads to one of the first player-on-player kills outside of a oneshot, with Laudna, having had enough betrayal, draining the life out of him, implicitly restoring Delilah's connection to her. Even the players were surprised, with Marisha saying she didn't want to do it, but it's what Laudna would've done.
  • Episode 91 has two notable ones during the battle with Otohan Thull.
    • When the battle starts, she uses her first round of combat to kill Chetney, taking him down to zero hit points then using an Action Surge to completely kill him. The party are able to revive him with a timely use of Rivivify (after Matt decided it was OK to retcon FCG had prepared the spell after Sam realised he had a free spell prepare slot available), but its still a brutal and shocking reminder of how much of a Hero Killer Thull is.
    • Fresh Cut Grass, recognising they're about to be killed by Otohan Thull who will then likely cause a Total Party Kill, opting to instead target themself with Guiding Bolt, specifically their core, causing it to become unstable and trigger a mini nuclear explosion to take them both out. Not only are viewers likely shocked, as are the players, but Matt is visibly caught off guard by the move, questioning Sam several times if he knows what this means, and is tearing up as they go over what entails. Becomes very difficult to look away as this is all happening. Worth noting is that instead of being up to bad rolls like Mollymauk, or deliberately telegraphed like Bertrand Bell, this was the first time a player decided for gameplay-related reasons that their death was necessary.
  • Episode 92 has one right before the break, as Orym tearfully uses the Sending Stone to commune with Dorian, Matt, rather than reply, has the table all leave the room, before he also leaves the DM chair, so that Aabria Iyengar can take his place. After the break, instead of Bell's Hells, we're met with the Crown Keepers, and are getting an update of where they've been during all this.
• Squick:
  • Travis's descriptions of Chetney's graphic werewolf transformations strike as this for some.
  • Sam's jokes about FCG's non-canon flesh tongue are this for some fans (as well as Matt who refuses to make it canon).
• Unexpected Character:
  • Fearne, Orym, and Bertrand Bell reappearing as Ashley, Liam and Travis’ characters in Campaign Three took the fanbase by surprise.
  • Dorian Storm, as played by Robbie Daymond, returning from Exandria Unlimited in the first episode of Campaign 3 was quite unexpected. Dorian wasn’t played by one of the main cast members, and there had been no hint that an eighth player would be starting out the campaign beforehand.
  • Delilah Briarwood reappearing as Laudna’s patron was widely speculated, but regarded as a fun long shot theory.
  • A variant in episode 7; Travis rejoins the group as Chetney, who is effectively the same character he played in a Christmas one-shot some years prior named Chutney. This was particularly surprising to fans, and Matt had to clarify that the oneshot isn't canon, Travis just enjoyed Chutney so much he made his new character a Captain Ersatz.
  • No one expected Beau and Caleb to show up in episode 50.
  • In possibly the biggest unexpected character appearance in all of Critical Role, motherfuckin' Vax'ildan appears in episode 51. ^note  Sam, in a moment of humorous irony, did technically predict this due to his gas-can joke of the session being a bingo card of potential character cameos, on which Vax was included amongst other more outlandish examples.
  • In episode 81, one of the volunteers from across Exandria roped in to deal with the Cerberus Assembly is Earthbreaker Groon.
• Viewer Name Confusion: A good number of viewers have noted that it's going to get confusing, since Ashton isn't being played by Ashley, and Laudna is a close friend of Laura's character. Even Matt has gotten it wrong.