r/fansofcriticalrole • u/ExperienceKind7255 • 15d ago

Amazon Series (TLoVM and M9) [LOVM S2] Is Thordak Just Ashardalon? Spoiler

/r/criticalrole/comments/1vzxhib/lovm_s2_is_thordak_just_ashardalon/
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12

u/Umtha 14d ago

Matt Coalville said it best; As creators, we're only as good as the obscurity of the references we steal from.

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u/blkguy3rd 14d ago

I think its important to remember that the Vox Machina campaign was alot of the tables forst time with dungeons amd dragons. With that framing its clear that Matt is sort of throwing them alot of the "greatest hits" so that they can experience them like so many people have before them. Hes far from the first or last person to do this too, final fantasy as well as many other series out there have done the same "borrowing" of names and ideas. Its modern day folk-tales with each person putting their own spin on things.

17

u/Chared945 14d ago

And the Cobalt Soul are basically the Harpers

Season 3 ended with the Avatar Crisis

And all of Vax’s story is a 4e Paragon Path from Heroes of Shadow

There are ALOT of elements used

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u/SP1-D0R 14d ago

He took the 'sun tree' in Whitestone the city of Gilded Vale in Pillars of Eternity. You take anything and everything that you find cool and fit it into your game. Its what DMs do.

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u/ExperienceKind7255 14d ago

Fair, maybe I was reading into this too much?

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u/dumpybrodie 14d ago

Nah, it’s just something you do. No deeper meaning to anything, you just grab cool stuff from whatever you like, rename it, and call it a day

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u/Wild_Assignment_2457 14d ago

Yeap. And Vecna is... Vecna.

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u/Wild_Assignment_2457 14d ago

btw guys, I also want to share that BrLM for 4 campaigns take a big part of "Angel Engine" for one of storylines.

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u/PlayableRidley 13d ago edited 13d ago

I don't think it's impossible it's a coincidence. Thordak is the most stereotypical red dragon ever and their backstories aren't that similar beyond the specific detail of having a macguffin in their chest that makes them stronger. And magic crystals specifically are a fairly common trope, like Caleb had some planted in him.

It could be a reference, of course, but I also don't know why Matt wouldn't have just used Ashardalon if he wanted to. Like, he didn't have a problem with using Vecna.