Analysis:
This is probably the best example of non-verbal exchange in
Critical Role to date. Most of the scene’s development doesn’t actually take
place with words. Vax and Percy are both very expressive people. Their talk the
night before, camped outside the Sunken Temple (Ep44 1:15:21), was warm,
earnest, and forgiving. It was full of subtext. Here, their inner thoughts are
written all over their faces. But both of them are so caught up in their inner maelstroms
that they’re not reading each other (part can’t, part don’t want to, I think).
Which causes the conflict to escalate.
Percy is drowning in so much guilt that he’s mildly dissociating. His language is extremely passive. “The trap was a bit- there was a trap, and it was well protected.”
He is literally removing himself from what happened by making the subject of
the sentence more anonymous and emphasizing the action over the actor. At 33:18
he tells Vax, “I rushed in, and triggered the trap that almost killed your
sister.” Vax replies, “That killed my sister.” And Percy says,
“I can’t say that.” Percy may quite literally, unintentionally not be
able to say he killed Vex. Dissociation can be a response to trauma. It’s the
reason Percy can’t remember everything that happened during the Whitestone
coup. This is obviously much more mild, but Percy is clearly in great distress.
This is something he flatly says he couldn’t live with. Percy, who’s done some
pretty terrible things and lived with them. He’s making excuses to remove
culpability. He’s drowning and grasping at anything to get out.
Vax is reacting to a few things. No one ever told him exactly what
happened. Vex is the most important person in his life, and he probably just
gave up everything for her, and no one answered
him in the moment or took him aside after. He’s mostly clearly shocked that Vex
didn’t. He seemed to be giving her a pass, like she may not know, until she
tells Yennen before telling him. He ends up learning the bulk of what happened
second hand, to his great irritation. So when Percy takes him aside, but then
ends up being evasive, that adds to Vax’s frustration. Vax is reading Percy’s
detachment as flippant arrogance. Just the night before they’d talked about
sticking together, being a family, making each other better people. Percy had
said, “I apologize, for any of the mistakes I’ve made, and honestly any of
the mistakes I’m likely to make. But, I am starting to imagine a better version
of myself.” But the very next day, he not only commits a monumentally
stupid, disastrous, fuck up mistake, but he’s evading responsibility for it. Vax
hates bullshit at the best of times. Percy also never thanks Vax for making a
deal with The Raven Queen, or even acknowledges it directly. Percy and Vax talk in
subtext most of the time, so when Percy says, “We are going into dangerous territory; We all have to think a little
bit more,” Vax may have taken it as the acknowledgement he was waiting for.
A slight that Percy was glad Vex wasn’t dead, but Vax was an idiot for doing
it. Whether he made that misread or not, that’s where Vax loses his temper. Percy’s
words ring hollow to Vax, at best. Which is why Vax specifically punches “him
in his know-it-all fucking mouth.” Trusting Percy and letting
him in are undoubtedly among what Vax considers his fair share of mistakes (36:03).
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Transcript method notes: http://otdderamin.tumblr.com/post/153539301510/a-note-on-my-transcription-method
Scenes run
1. Grog to Vex: You didn’t die. But you did. 0:15:32 to 0:15:52
https://youtu.be/0uazTyTrk-8?t=932
2. Vax learns Percy set off the trap 0:17:31 to 0:17:56
https://youtu.be/0uazTyTrk-8?t=1052
3. Percy tries to apologize to Vax 0:32:46 to 0:37:32
https://youtu.be/0uazTyTrk-8?t=1966
1. Grog to Vex: You didn’t die. But you did.
0:15:32
Grog: “Corps armor,
hello?”
Percy flinches.
Keyleth: “Oh, corps
armor.”
Percy: “-what we found and
see if what it is we want to…”
Grog: “You know, the thing
that almost killed out friend over here.”
Vex, very matter-of-factly:
“It did kill me, according to you.”
Percy very notably winces:
“It- Yes.” He looks down dejectedly.
Vax looks nervous and twitchy
at the subject.
Grog: Yeah, but I mean, you’re
here, so… I mean, you didn’t die. But you did! But you didn’t. But you did! And
then you didn’t.“
Vex: “Thanks, Grog.”
Grog: “Yep.”
0:15:52
2. Vax learns Percy
set off the trap
0:17:31
Yennen: “So the armor is what
killed you?”
[Percy, Keyleth and Vex talk at once]
Percy: “No, no.”
Keyleth: “No, no no.”
Vex: “No, it was actually
a trap that Percival set off is what killed me.”
Percy, dispassionate: “Yes. The-”
Vax, startled and then staring
at Vex seriously: “What?”
Percy, looking shaken:
“-trap was a bit- there was a trap, and it was well protected.” His
sentence his unusually faltering and he looks deeply haunted with guilt by the
end.
Vax looks between Percy and
Vex, staring looking at Vex like he’s hurt she kept something from him,
sternly: “What?”
Vex, trying to brush off the
incident, but clearly uncomfortable: “What, n- What what?”
Percy: “Yes, what?”
Vex: “What?”
Grog: “He didn’t know
that.”
Vex, brushing the tension aside
with a forced smile and breezy tone: “What? So, these, um, these vestiges?”
Percy’s body language remains very
closed, full of grief and guilt, though he mostly sets his neutral mask back in
place.
Vax looks bewildered, shifting
into great agitation and simmering anger as he clearly turns over his own thoughts
while Deathwalker’s Ward is identified.
0:17:56
3.
Percy tries to apologize to Vax
0:32:46
Taliesin: “I’m going to take
Vax aside, really quick.”
Marisha: “Uh-oh.”
Travis: “Oh shit. Let’s do
that first.”
Percy: “So, I had a careless
moment, and I apologize.”
Vax: “Wait-”
Percy: “And you’re the first
apology I’m putting forward. I don’t know if I would have done anything
different, but I hope you know I would’ve- never forgiven myself.”
Vax: “What’re you talking
about?”
33:18 Percy: “I rushed in, and
triggered the trap that almost killed your sister.”
Vax, point-blank: “That
killed my sister.”
Percy: “I can’t say
that.” He shakes his head and swallows hard.
Vax, looking at Percy in
disbelief: “What do you mean you- What do you mean?”
Percy: “I was
careless.”
Vax: “Well, what happened,
Percival?”
33:41 Percy: “I felt the danger
had passed, and I moved too quickly. And opened the casket without thinking.
That’s all. I just didn’t think.”
Vax, looking increasingly
agitated: “You just opened it? Just like that?”
Percy: “I was tired. I
wasn’t thinking. Sometimes we just move too quickly.”
Vax cracks his knuckles, and looks
like he’s really struggling: “Um…”
34:22 Percy: “But I want you to
know that it would have… I’m very glad that she’s alive because I don’t think I
could have lived with myself.”
Vax: “Alright. Um…”
He aggressively sighs. “Could you do me a favor?”
Percy: “Yes.”
34:54 Vax, clearly trying to control
his temper: “In the future- Um… If there is anything that your little
heart desires inside of a box, in the future, uh… In the future, could you check
with my sister or myself first?”
35:15 Percy, looking more haunted:
“That’s the hope, yes. That was more of a lesson than I was hoping for.
Thankfully not too much of one.” He briefly smiles grimly.
Vax’s body language shifts while
Percy speaks, meeting Percy’s hedging and flippancy, Percy’s attempts to
distance himself from what happened, with increasing outrage.
Vax: “Well, Uh…” He
sighs in disbelief.
35:36 Percy: “And none of us are
beyond mistakes, but that is a mistake that I am going to be thinking about for
a very long time. We are going into dangerous territory. We all have to think a
little bit more. And she especially, I couldn’t-” Percy is very still, but
his body language is very closed, and he looks like he may be imploding.
Vax’s body language shifts again
towards grief. It’s pretty clear he doesn’t think Percy has learned anything.
36:03 Vax:
“Well listen, Percy, we’re not playing a game.”
Percy, very
quietly: “No.”
Vax: “And we
will all make mistakes. And I wager I will make my fair share. I’ve little
doubt.” He sighs and winces. “And Percival, I want to apologize. I’m
sorry.” Percy is clearly taken aback. “But, um…”
Liam: “And I
punch him in his know-it-all fucking mouth.”
Matt: “Do
you attempt to move out of the way or take it?”
Taliesin:
“Yeah, let’s take it.”
36:48 Matt:
“Alright.” He mimics a punch with a sound effect. “Decks you
square in the- You know, for as hefty as a punch it was, it doesn’t hurt quite
as much as you expected, but it’s not the physical pain that hurts, more than
the action, and the knowledge that there are more repercussions to your rash
decision than even you initially anticipated.”
Percy and Vax
stare at each other. Percy touches where he was punched, sighs and grimaces in
pain, tries to work some of the blood out of his mouth, but nods at Vax.
Vax, glowering:
“Goodnight, Percival.”
Percy, strained:
“Goodnight, Vax.”
Scanlan:
“It’s four in the afternoon!”
Taliesin:
“I’m going to work. I’m going into my studio.”
0:37:32
Critical Analysis 