Talks Machina 43: The Chapter Closes

is the forty-third episode of Talks Machina.

Questions Part I

 * Question for Matt: "Matt, if Sam had saved his Wish spell, would it have saved Vax or would the Raven Queen have taken him anyway?"
 * There might have been a chance to change some things, but completely breaking a pact with a god is almost impossible.


 * Brian asked Liam as a follow up if Liam would have wanted someone to save him. Liam wanted Vax to have a happy ending, but knew that it probably wouldn't happen. He hoped Vax would get to retire to Zephrah with Keyleth and possibly have children if Keyleth had wanted to. By the end of the campaign, Vax was committed to the Raven Queen and had faith in her. He would not have tried to get out of the deal.


 * Question for Sam: "Did you have the precise wording planned out for Wish? If so, what was it?"
 * Sam did not have an exact wording in mind, but he had two general thoughts. One thought was to Wish that the Raven Queen not be able to sense Vecna's defeat, buying Vox Machina time to ask another god to bargain with the Raven Queen on Vax's behalf. Matt said depending on how the Wish was worded that may have worked. Liam said Vax would never have gone along with that. Sam's idea for if the Raven Queen showed up immediately after the battle, was to Wish for delaying the bargain until the end of Keyleth's or Vax's natural life. Matt said that using Wish to get some kind of a delay was what he was expecting.


 * Question for Taliesin: "Did you always have it in Percy's backstory that he wanted to be a clockmaker?"
 * Taliesin was not sure what to do with Percy after his plan with the Raven Queen did not work and he remembered the original short story that he had made about Percy five years ago. He was trying to figure out how to bring Percy back from the edge because Percy was about to snap.


 * Question for Liam: "Was Vax more worried about leaving Vex behind or Keyleth?"
 * Keyleth because Vex had someone to be with and a future.


 * Question for everyone: "What do you make of the unintentional foreshadowing of the importance of ravens in Kit Buss's first CR art piece?"
 * Everyone enjoyed it.

GIF of the Week
GIF of the Week winner was @yumyumcabanossi with a GIF of Grog pulling a card from the Deck of Many Things, Scanlan teasing Grog that Percy had lost his arm, and ending with the hashtag #NoRegrets.

Questions Part II

 * Question for Sam: "What's it like going from 'the dorkiest combination of race/class ever' to the literal MVP of the hardest fight?"
 * Sam was the most surprised of everyone because he had no expectations going into the first game going into the stream. Liam picked his race and class when they created characters; and Liam will do that again for the next campaign. Sam was legitimately proud of himself and his strategy in the final fight.


 * Question for Liam: "Did you anticipate the Raven Queen coming so early? Did you expect her sooner?"
 * Liam expected her as soon as the battle was over. He loved how Matt waited until a positive moment where everyone was happy seeing the city realize it was saved.


 * Brian asked Matt to follow up if that was how he intended the Raven Queen's appearance to go. Matt wanted to give Vax the chance to see the people they have saved and see that he had truly changed the world. He thought it would make the moment more bittersweet. Matt added that if it weren't for the deal allowing Vax to sense Vecna's location, Vasselheim probably would have been destroyed. When Matt first planned the encounter, he was expecting Vox Machina to arrive as the city was being destroyed.


 * Question for Taliesin: "Had Percy not been stopped in his tracks by the Matron of Ravens, what would his plan have been to save Vax?"
 * Percy was going to sell his soul using his contract from the Nine Hells to get the right to bring Vax back and try to do it without anyone noticing. Matt had a whole speech planned for the Raven Queen if anyone had tried to argue with her that Vax should stay. She was going to tell them about how insignificant they are and that all mortals are the instruments of divinity. Percy trying to physically approach the Raven Queen ensured that she was not going to hear him out or let him interfere. Taliesin said Percy wanted to save Vax but also just get revenge on the Raven Queen for calling him broken. Liam pointed out that Percy's last words to Vax were indignant and irritated, a callback to an earlier episode where Vax stopped Percy from making a goodbye speech.

Fan Art of the Week
Fan Art of the Week winner was Olivia Rea with a three panel piece of Vax saying goodbye to Vex and Keyleth then walking into the Raven Queen's cloak.