My favorite moment was in Orion's last episode where Matt just goes "You fail, you've wasted a day and lose 500 gold"

this puts more into perspective why liam is always so honest with his rolls and always pointing it out if he made a mistake or wants someone to double check him...i initially thought it was weird but with this context it makes a lot of sense

17:35 Hearing her call him out on wasting his sorcerer points really made the atmosphere feel heavy, but she made a valid point.

a DM is not obligated to roleplay out a players wierd kink, and has every right to not engage.

The moment Orion started a session by saying he went to get his own bag of holding in-between sessions and you could see the absolute murderous intent in Matt's eyes.

The problem with Orion making a sexual remark directed at Laura was not that she was married and Travis was there, it was that it was clearly unwanted and made her feel awkward. If Laura has been single it would still have been weird.

I appreciated Liam once clarifying (campaign 2, I think?) that he, Liam, knew what the creature they were fighting was, but his character did not.

Travis: "I would like to rage." "Does Grog have rages left?" "I'm not talking about Grog."

He'd also use the fact that fans of the show, gifted them things. He'd mention specific things that he wanted, saying it'd be perfect for his character, and wait for a fan to gift it to him. After that, CR didn't allow fans to buy them stuff anymore.

The palpable change in vibe in the first session after Orion left is so noticeable. It's like everyone can finally just relax and have fun and enjoy the game.

It's strategically worse to be disgusting to a married woman with her husband present, sure, but the comment wouldn't have been any better if the woman in question had been single.

Every time I watch the half chub clip I take 1 psychic damage

One of my favorites was when Travis broke character and said "no youre done" during a market scene

Right before the “half-chub” he also tried to make the whole Briarwoods arc about him too. Because they were rude to him. Made it about him right in front of Percy.

One thing I love about Sam he never avoids confrontation

the way matt tries to diffuse the situation and marisha stayed on the attack oh she hated that man

left out tiberious teleporting to his home city to buy a bag of holding between sessions without telling mat

Just a few things to add:

1. After he left the show, Acaba started a Kickstarter to fund his own show. He led people believe he was working on a D&D show, what he produced was more a radio show where he got to talk to himself in several voices, before cancelling the show after just a few episodes. It was so bad people started asking for their money back, which of course he never did, along with never delivering any promised perks. That show is now back on YT, and it’s at a level suitable for 6 yo kids, which he now claims is what he was aiming for. Of course, he never mentioned that during the Kickstarter.

2. Acaba organised a fundraiser for a critter whose parents tragically died in a car crash, without telling her. She only found out when others asked her how the donations are going. She had to reach out to him and he of course never send her any money; it turned out he was using it to buy various things for himself, and after almost a year of various excuses, she gave up on him and published their whole email conversation on the CR forums. Naturally, people who donated started asking for their money back. Of course, he never returned it.

3. Acaba’s ex-girlfriend left him after he asked her to give him a lift from somewhere, but he was 6 hours late, so she just drove home. After said 6 hours, he called her and screamed at her on top of his lungs, and she ended it. The voicemail can still be found online, and it’s awful. She consequently revealed that Orion never had cancer, and that it was just an excuse  he used to explain his gaunt appearance, which was in fact the result of heavy class A drug abuse and to incite attention from others. Orion subsequently never provided any evidence of cancer or treatment, despite numerous calls to do so.

4. Acaba eventually released a video in which he admitted to drug abuse and asked for money to finance a rehab. Due to all the above, it didn’t go down well. The general reaction was ‘I don’t support junkies’ or the hilarious’ I already gave you money for your Kickstarter and charity collection, tell you what - you can keep it’. When it became obvious he won’t collect any money yet, he released another video, only 24 hours later. Gone was the calm and open manner, he was abusive, rude, screaming and calling the critters all names under the sun. The video was took down by YT so he continued his offensive rant on the forums, until he was permanently banned. Yep, you read that right - a founding member of Critical Role was banned from the Critical Role forums.

This concludes the story of Orion Acaba. Don’t do drugs, kids!

What's truly wild to me about Orion's worldview about D&D, is not only that he views the game as an antagonistic relationship between the players and the DM, but that, by his logic, he apparently considered Matt Mercer of all people to be an antagonistic DM.

22:40 Taliesin is thinking "Oh shit, I'm about to see a dead body"