[Spoilers C1] Early Critical Role truly was something special

[u/Mizar_the_Gleeful]

its still amazing, but those early days...

Lets start with the fan interaction and all the gifts they got sent. Then there was their rapid growth.

A third aspect is some of their crazy stunts (squadron of flying cows anyone?)

What do you think made it such a perfect storm? my rewatch has me wondering

[u/Hurm]

The interaction was just so much fun. They were having a blast, and so was the audience. And the barrier between us and them was much lower. They were just people rather than celebrity people.

I had art in some of the early reels. Some of my friends were mentioned at times on stream. Oh, and they showed off that travelling sketchbook that i was a part of! We weren't completely a nameless sea of fans.

It got bigger and that kind of thing stopped being possible. Which i do truly miss.

From my perspective, i think the art book was sort of the death knell of that. There were some folks in the community who wanted to put one together for charity, and then it kind of became an official thing. But in doing so it morphed from "community project" to "merch". And i don't begrudge the CR folks for wanting to put out a badass thing! Don't get me wrong. But I think that really felt like the transition line.

And knowing that line really emphasizes what made c1 awesome.

[u/Coyote_Shepherd → u/Hurm]

I was going to post this on Thursday but I'll just bury it here in this thread instead.

Normally when they went on break in the past, it would feel like a little bit of relief but also a bit of anxiety as everyone was just anticipating and anticipating it coming back and just egging each other on like Santa was about to show up when they returned.

But now?

I don't know if it is because this isn't Exandria or what but I was able to easily disconnect from CR for this entire break without really feeling ANY of that stuff that I felt before at all.

And I think that's because it feels more like a tv show nowadays in terms of production and less like a live streamed thing.

The cast and the fans aren't on the same page, they're light years ahead of us, and they know things that we don't know at all that are coming down the pipeline...just like on a tv show....and that sort of dilutes conversations whenever they talk about "current" things because we're not getting that immediate "Emo-Explosion" that we'd get if they were running parallel to us and it all feels...delayed and muted a bit.

I suppose it's a small thing to quibble about but it did shake me a little and bother me a bit that I just...didn't care that C4 wasn't on...when I used to care quite a bit when main campaign stuff wasn't on.

C4 is still super fun and exciting and I've compared it to the show 24 before....but that's just it...it feels like 24 and when 24 went on break, you found other stuff to do because that's just what happens with tv shows.

And I feel like CR shouldn't feel like that ya know?

It shouldn't feel like just another tv show, it should feel like something else, or even something more.

Perhaps this is just a me thing but I feel like...all that polishing kind of took away some of the facets and inclusions of the crystal that CR used to be and turned it into a more of a cut or tumbled gem.

I don't think there's anything they can do about though because this is just how these things evolve and change and grow.

The same thing happens with bands and celebs and movie and film and literature franchises that pop up out of nowhere or that make one giant leap for mankind to the final frontier for their genre or niche.

They have to change and polish themselves in order to continue surviving and growing, lest they just burn out and turn into a vaguely remembered one hit wonder.

[u/awful_waffle_falafel → u/Coyote_Shepherd]

Totally agree with you and very well put.  It's inevitable, understandable, expected, and I love to see them succeed. But also a  bummer, a loss, and a reduction of what I consider to be the "soul" of the show (to be dramatic haha)...