Talks Machina 74: Found & Lost

is the seventy-fourth episode of Talks Machina. Ashly Burch, Taliesin Jaffe, and Matthew Mercer discuss with host Brian Wayne Foster.

GIF of the Week
Winner: Claudia Z (Rndmanswrs4rndmqstns); Wildemount Breaking News gif.

Prize: Critical Role "Nott the Best Detective Agency" t-shirt.

Part 2

 * Ashly will be present for and, then join the cast for  live at GenCon.

Fan art of the Week
Winner: Emi Linders (@jesttothenines on Twitter); "To dust we return".

Prize: Cherry dice tower by Wyrmwood Gaming, with engraved cartography by Deven Rue.

Quotations

 * Taliesin: "Cardio for the soul."
 * Brian: "Hot murder streak before dyin', that's the way to go."
 * Ashly: "In the one-shots people didn't die as much, there was a bit less dying."
 * Brian: "And we have another guest that's gonna come on and hopefully kill someone else too this week, I believe. I'm sorry Dani." Ashly: "Only I get to kill main characters, that's me, that's special for me."
 * Taliesin: "So I've spent the weekend rolling a new character."
 * Matt: "If they had kept the cart, they would have never caught up to them."
 * Matt: "I think the point got across, it happened to have a high cost."
 * Matt: "If Keg hadn't stepped up...it could have gotten worse."
 * Matt: "Lorenzo is a specific character, and there's a vanity to him, and there is a--an element of--he enjoys the power and wielding it over people that he knows fear him. And so you played into that, and that was, in that moment, really his flaw. And that saved a lot further hardship."
 * Ashly: "It didn't take that much convincing, really, at the end of the day, to join."
 * Matt: "He did not seem to feel threatened."
 * Matt: "You could say he felt very comfortable covered in oil."
 * Taliesin: "[Molly's] feelings on death and violence are pretty easy."
 * Taliesin: "Everything felt borrowed at this point. He was not somebody who felt a lot of ownership--he was aware that so much could go wrong at any moment that he just didn't really lean into it that hard. It was very much the 'oh I woke up, that's great, that's still working, whatever it was that's been working this long is still working, holy cow we're going to go for with it.' He was aware it was going to come eventually and it was probably going to come earlier rather than later."
 * Taliesin: "That was a very Molly way to go, bitchy and defiant until the very end."
 * Matt: "[Character death] hurts, but I think it's important."
 * Taliesin: "[Molly's final thoughts] were easy and simple and base...the easy and sustaining emotion of 'well fuck you too'. No fear. No panic. Just...goddamnit."
 * Brian: "Poor Dani had a hard Thursday night."
 * Taliesin: "[The Lingering Soul] is literally the opposite of Molly."
 * Matt: "People were like 'to cast that spell you'd have to be a 14th level fighter.' No, you don't know all the stuff behind the scenes, don't get excited."
 * Dani: "I cried really hard in your arms."
 * Taliesin: "I was having a panic attack...I don't even want to know what happens next."
 * Taliesin: "Life is short; eat a bagel...Do something to a bagel."
 * Taliesin: "Oh, I can be 22 again and terrible and it's great."
 * Taliesin: "[my next character] is a different kind of fabulous."
 * Taliesin: "Quick! Bring me my dice, I need to soak them in the tears of the DM."
 * Taliesin: "Make people deal with you but make sure it's always a positive and kind experience."
 * Ashly: "I was doing ok until you fuckers started crying!"