the problem with sexism in the crtitical role fandom isn’t just overt outright sexist comments going after Marisha and Laura because they’re women (Ashley seems to get a pass because she’s not always there and people idealize her characters as the madonna to Marisha and Laura’s whores), that’s a problem but not the only problem. The huge issue is that Marisha and Laura are held to a much higher standard than anyone else at the table, and the hypocrisy is blatant. Whenever Keyleth did anything dumb or even when she did something cool and completely inline with her character Marisha got hate. When Grog did something stupid becuase that’s Grog, Travis didn’t get hate, they said oh that silly goliath he’s dumb but lovable, even people who don’t like Grog don’ go after Travis. When Vex stole Gern’s broom there was such a backlash among the ‘fans’ sent to Laura that she still gets nervous about it. Yet Sam as Nott has stolen from both their guests so far and their only 21 episodes in and attempted to steal from the main party twice, yet it’s just Nott being a quirky goblin and Sam’s playing her brilliantly while Vex is just a greedy bitch and Laura needed to keep herself in check because you don’t steal from the party. It’s that when Vex went shopping and haggled saving the party money, despite it being completely in character she was being a greedy bitch. While when Grog went shopping and over paid for a potion everyone laughed because Grog is dumb and that was Travis being true to Grog.
It’s that when Percy and Grog came to blows over the skull last campaign at the worst possible time no one gave Talisen or Travis shit, no people loved it and thought it was great storytelling. When Percy gave Grog and obviously evil sword that wound up biting them in the ass no one called the players out on using it even though the players knew it would bite them in the ass later on because people said that they were being true to their character. When Fjord got out his falchion and threatened Caleb when Caleb stole something in the middle of a job, when they had to get out of the High Richter’s house literally at the worst possible time even people who disagreed with the timing never got angry at Travis or Liam for stealing the scroll. And to be honest the Fjord and Caleb conflict was a lot stupider than the Beau Caleb conflict this last episode with both sides having a lot worse of a point.
It’s that Molly and Percy had/has the exact same sense of unearned bravado as Beau does yet its seen as charming to most of the fandom while Beau is just a bitch. It’s that Beau clearly has issues dealing with Caleb too, but whereas Caleb is infantalized and put on a pedestal for the way he acts Beau is seen as a bitch who needs to act normal and keep her mouth shut.
Look I don’t want the men on the show to get hate, I love all the cast. But Marisha and Laura are held to a much higher standard than the men at the table and it’s disgusting. Maybe you dislike their characters, that’s fine, but don’t pretend like a huge part of the fandom doesn’t hold Laura and Marisha’s characters to a much higher standard for playing ‘real’ dnd. If you believe that you’re either an idiot, a liar, blind and deaf, or a combination fo all of them, because I can easily pull up the reciepts. I can’t even get to the time stamp comments on the campaign 1 vidoes on youtube without seeing dozens of Marisha/Keyleth hate. One any Vox Machina video where there’s a comment about someone liking something Keyleth did there isn’t a dozen comments in reply saying that how awful of a character she is even if she just breathed.
Oh boy, and not to mention that even IF Keyleth did something clever or cool, they would belittle it and make it seem like it was a bad idea anyway even if the character either (a) wouldn’t know all pertinent information or (b) would do it because it’s in line with her character and other actions would go against her alignment. There’s one specific dudebro trolling the YT threads that just can’t seem to disappear even though he very clearly is miserable watching a bunch of nerdy ass voice actors play DnD.
And people bring up Orion Acaba hate as an example of them not “being a sexist” but fail to realize that the level of hate and enduring level of hate is very much different when aimed towards Kiki. Oh and Orion, you know, left the show??
yeah and the fact that people don’t like Orion especially now because the man is an ass. Tibs was an okay character at the beginning, but Orion dominated the screen time with his antics and just made everyone uncomfortable at the table. he left before a third of the first campaign was over. And even when he did people still defended him saying that Keyleth did the same thing when she didn’t and that she should leave despite not getting that he left for health reasons and because he was an asshole.
I can understand people not liking Keyleth or Marisha’s playstyle, I mean she was my favorite character so whatever, but the sheer amount of shit Marisha got/gets when the men at the table do things just as bad or worse is ridiculous.
And you’re a 100% right about when Keyleth does do awesome things they’re belittled. Like in ep 30 campaign 1, Scanlan kills a vampire on its last legs with vicious mockery and his piss and it’s awesome(it was cool and funny, but only worked because Matt allowed it since he thought it was funny and cool. It’s fine but if it was Laura or Marisha the audience would throw a bitchfit over how Laura was wasting time or Matt allowed it because Marisha’s his girlfriend), but of course no one mentions that Keyleth killed two of them permanently with a single sunbeam when no one could touch the mist form. Or in 34 where Keyleth kills Silas but no one mentions it because it was Keyleth who shouldn’t have been smart enough to use sunlight on a vampire despite knowing that ahead of time. I look at the youtube comments when she feebleminded Raishan and everytime someone says how cool it was there are a dozen comments saying that Raishan should have been prepared for the spell, despite it being the first time Keyleth cast it, or that they’d like to happy, but they can’t because Vox Machina didn’t hold up their end of the bargain to the dragon called the Diseased Deciver who committed genocide against a 4th of Keyleth’s people, not because they hated Keyleth oh no that would be ridiculous. That Keyleth threatening Raishan who betrayed her people and caused so many to be killed is seen as her being an idiot instead of true to her character yet when Grog threatened an archfey in the feywilde right after they fought another archfey and were low on spells and hitpoints it was fine.
I got spoiled with the Vecna fight with all of Sam’s incredible counterspells which were amazing, but that’s all anyone talked about. No one mentioned that Keyleth was the one who sealed the big bad of the campaign away due to her shapeshifting abilities and finding a loophole in the rules.
I love all of the cast, but you’re right, when she does something bad people jump on it and when she does something awesome it’s written off. ‘She’s a druid the most op class of course she did that, but she should have done it better, one of the men would have done it better.’ ‘Marisha shouldn’t have known that she’s such a dumb bitch and the only reason she’s here is because she’s in a relationship with matt.” and garbage like that.
I’m sorry that I ranted on your reblog, I’ve been rewatching the vox machina campaign and I can’t believe how much youtube commentators hated her for existing
Bloodyshadow 