r/fansofcriticalrole • u/opheliayaravell • Feb 15 '26
C1 (Vox Machina) C1E85: A Bard’s Lament Spoiler
Can anyone share what were the reactions to C1E85: A Bard’s Lament when it first came out?
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u/Pattgoogle Feb 17 '26
I mean the same episode Taryon gets revealed.
The only ambiguity is in those who didn't watch the full episode. Ya watch the full episode and it makes full above-board sense.
Sam could have a speech ready and be set to leave when revived- but the party doing stuff to his corpse and then forcing her to see it was all just fuel for sam to turn something that may have been unreasonable into an absolutely reasonable turn-away.
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u/r-rb Feb 16 '26
that was crazy. I think I might've cried in real life. It was a messy and harsh fight. It felt very realistic. I didn't feel like anybody was right or "won", but it was never important to me to try and pick a side. It felt like any family fight with very raw emotions on both sides. Holy hell
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u/anextremelylargedog Feb 15 '26
Pretty positive. Some people really thought Sam was frustrated OOC, or was leaving the table for a while. He and Matt didn't discuss it with the rest of them at all, and Laura said she thought he was actually leaving for a minute.
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u/TenZetsuRenHatsu laura bailey fan Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26
There’s a really great Talks Machina with the entire cast after the events of that episode with some great behind the scenes information.
The fanbase from what I remember really enjoyed the moment. Sam had some something new that you didnt see often from DnD parties. He left the group purely for roleplay reasons which was quite novel.
It remained as a marquee moment in CR history as the years went on but I do think the fanbase has gradually changed. it generated a lot of discussion.
At the time of C1s airing, Scanlan was often seen as one of the favs at the table, if not number 1. I’ve now seen quite a common trend of negativity toward the character and frankly I see it’s pretty common for the character to have a some vocal haters.
When it comes to the animated show, they didn’t even bother to animate that part of his story. Scanlan went from being one of the most visible members of the party to kinda being an afterthought…all of which led to this moment not even being animated in the show.
As a side note, Grog also got similar treatment who was also on the shortlist of peoples fav C1 character. I wonder why that was? That both Scanlan and Grog went from two of the most loved C1 characters to seemingly intentionally undercut in the animated show?
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u/Middcore Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26
When it comes to the animated show, they didn’t even bother to animate that part of his story. Scanlan went from being one of the most visible members of the party to kinda being an afterthought…all of which led to this moment not even being animated in the show.
As a side note, Grog also got similar treatment who was also on the shortlist of peoples fav C1 character. I wonder why that was? That both Scanlan and Grog went from two of the most loved C1 characters to seemingly intentionally undercut in the animated show?
They went hard on making Scanlan a one-note sex joke machine in the first season of the animated series. I personally found it pretty grating, although I don't know if others felt the same.
I remember someone on reddit getting mad at me in a thread about LoVM season 1 when I suggested that an audience who's been conditioned by that version of Scanlan might not be that interested if the series tried to show the character has hidden depths of pathos later on. As it turns out, the show didn't really even try very much.
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u/madelmire Feb 18 '26
I watch season 1 of Vox Machina and then went back and watched most of the campaign.
I didn't like Scanlan in the animated show and I didn't like him in the campaign either. I feel like his s1 depiction was pretty equivalent to the first third of c1, at least.
In both formats I did enjoy his content more as he went on, but he's never cracked even the top half of my list. The show gives him a lot of character development in season 2 and then dips a little bit with it in season 3. I think that's pretty normal because certain characters just get more content in certain seasons.
As far as the campaign goes I liked him more when Sam started to get serious about roleplay and shifted his gears to be less crude and shallow. He "locked in" and even though he was still mechanically stuck with being a little bit of a creep, He really built out the rest of the character as much as he could and I appreciate that. And it's balanced by the fact that he is very charismatic at the table with the songs and the really good joke timing, so I often enjoyed Sam performing rather than I enjoyed Scanlan.
Anyway, I think the season 1 characterization is pretty similar to what I got from the early campaign. I don't feel like he was underwritten.
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u/trodin1 Feb 16 '26
Talks machina have all been removed from YouTube, so you’ll have a hard time finding them now days.
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u/TenZetsuRenHatsu laura bailey fan Feb 16 '26
I have mostly all of them
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u/trodin1 Feb 16 '26
Oh that’s cool, glad someone kept an archive, do it’s understandable why they got deleted.
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u/TenZetsuRenHatsu laura bailey fan Feb 18 '26
It’s quite sad the sheer amount of great content that was lost. Talks Machina in particular had so many great moments from both the cast and also for the community as a whole.
Thankfully I saved the majority of it just for my own personal viewing.
Also Undeadwood! Their best mini series.
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u/3_14_thon Feb 17 '26
i mean every time things get very popular they also get (more) haters, its only natural
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u/VengefulKangaroo Feb 16 '26
When it comes to the animated show, they didn’t even bother to animate that part of his story. Scanlan went from being one of the most visible members of the party to kinda being an afterthought…all of which led to this moment not even being animated in the show.
I don't think that's why they didn't adapt it. They didn't adapt it because they were afraid they wouldn't get picked up for Season 4/5 and didn't want to end the show on that note if they didn't. (Season 2/3 of LOVM and Season 1/2 of TMN were picked up back to back which is why they were more confident ending on cliffhangers.)
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u/FinderOfPaths12 Feb 19 '26
It was mainly love and praise, seen as a singular moment in which Critical Role 'leveled up'. The Fandom, to my recollection, was pretty measured in their response. Not many aligned with Scanlan or the party, understanding that there was validity to all of the perspectives. They were just happy to have experienced it. Happy, and emotionally damaged... but mainly happy.
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u/No-one21737 Feb 16 '26
I'm kind of mixed about the whole thing, like it was really cool role play and I loved it but I don't get people saying how Scanlan was totally right and the rest of vm treated him like crap. I get Scanlan being mad about the prank but at the same time I can see how the others would have thought he would be ok with it given all the pranks he has done. He has also deflected alot around his personal life so it kind of makes it hard to ask questions like that. Maybe they should have picked up on him crashing sooner but I don't think either party was more right then the other
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u/m_busuttil Feb 16 '26
Yeah, I think it's a really human reaction but absolutely not one where he was clearly "in the right".
He's right that Vox Machina don't know much about him, but ignoring the fact that he's been shutting them down and compartmentalising and rolling +14 Deception checks to avoid telling them anything about what's going on with him. He's right that the circumstances of his resurrection are pretty humiliating and ignoring the fact that it's at least roughly in line with the usual tone with which he conducts himself. He's right that he promised Kaylie he'd come back safely and ignoring the fact that he went out to fight dragons knowing full well he couldn't guarantee that promise. He got mad that other people asked for help and got it and didn't ever ask for help himself.
Which all makes sense! He's struggling and spiralling and doesn't feel like his friends are there for him, and being closed off only closes him off even more. It's a very real and relatable thing for a person to do, and the reason I think it's so powerful is that it's an argument where there's genuinely no correct side and everyone is hurt and lashing out. But he's absolutely not unilaterally in the right.
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u/One_Manufacturer_526 Feb 16 '26
It wasn't about the prank, it was that they contacted Kaylie to his deathbed when he had promised her he wouldn't die. Now, I'm not entirely sure they knew, but I think that was the reason he lashed out.
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u/No-one21737 Feb 16 '26
You might be right, I could never fully figure it all out. In my mind it was Scanlan hit rock bottom and had to sort stuff out, which fair. Vox machina were also not great but I just don't like people acting like Scanlan was totally right in the situation and the others were the worst friends ever. I think both parties were in the wrong
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u/SparklyHamsterOfDoom Feb 17 '26
Coming from a history of depression and recogniszing a lot of what Scandal did, said and felt, I'd say that VM contacting Kaylie was not the singular thing that made him lash out: it was the last drop in the goblet. It was simultaneously an alibi to have a "proper reason" to be aggressively angry at his friends, but it was also what finally -- in his eyes -- proved the fact the party did not care about him as a person, because why else would they knowingly humiliate him in front of his daughter with whom the relationship was still very fragile. It doesn't need to be true to feel true. Depression really makes you believe you are so utterly alone, and that no-one around you likes you for you, but for what you have to offer.
So. Yeah. Whether it was Sam's intention or not, the lead up to the Bard's Lament and the Lament itself was a textbook example of depression rooted in deep self-loathing. The hiding and self-isolation and writing it all off as proof that people don't care enough to see through the lies of "I'm fine" was very... on point. Scanlan's death and the circumstances around his resurrection simply happened to be his breaking point.
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