Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - Quests N’ Answers | Inside Sagas of Sundry: Goblin Mode Ep. 12

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Welcome to Quests N’ Answers, the companion series to Sagas of Sundry: Goblin Mode! ***Massive spoilers ahead for episode 12***   Join Dan Casey and special guest Ross Bryant (MST3K, Improvised Shakespeare Company, Dropout), as well as cast members Amy Vorpahl, Jason Nguyen, and Danielle Radford as they break down the most memorable episode of Goblin Mode yet in a deep dive into episode 12, “Life After Death.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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But first, let me introduce my amazing cast. I'm Danielle Radford. Amy Forupol. Jason Lynn. Hey, Ross Bryant. And, folks, we have so much to talk about. But first, I do need to remind you, this is going to be full spoilers. So if you haven't seen the latest episode of Goblin Mode yet, go back, listen to it, watch it, whatever you do.

But, you know, proceed at your own peril. Okay, with that out of the way, wow. We're, uh... Wow, it is right. We're dead. Wow. Tippy's dead. Tiffy's dead.

We're dead inside, or maybe outside, depending on how you look at it. I think the first place I want to start this is we've got Rice Brian on the show. Ross. Hey, yes. Holy cow. What has it been like playing the altar version of Fibbs? A total blast. I really only had the, you gave me some information about what this character was,

but I really didn't have an idea until I saw it brought to life. Just sitting across the room. But yeah, that is great fun. It was so masterful the way you woven, like, weird philosophy. I can't stress enough how much I was just like, it's going to be weird? Like, maybe lean into weird? You said lean into weird.

It felt very fitting because Phibbs is a character who's, like, deep in the pursuit of knowledge. And if they've been here for a long time, Clearly Phil O'Rill would be increasingly ponderous, so it played fantastically for me. What was going through y'all's head when I described, like, literally who I'm sure you knew what were copies of yourself.

First, like, shock, joy, then, oh no. Because I realized it was about to happen. That's like when I, because the only way that I could express it with myself is like every time you start singing, the only thing I could think of like is how much you hate hearing the sound of your own voice. And so that's why every time, like,

there's a mention of the singing business always like, yeah, that's great, because it's like, oh, right, that's me. Oh, and I hate me. Or, like, hearing, like, me do that. And so, yeah, just, like, having that outside mirror, like, thrown up and seeing it. And then getting to see live Ronnie and getting a little bit of that, going back for those just kind of reminding folks

who'd seen the earlier episodes, and then for us it wasn't here. When we were escaping the lair, there was a goblin statue with a circlet on it. A dwarf statue. Sorry, a dwarf statue with a circlet on it.

And Tippy had the idea that maybe it was an alive statue that had been turned to stone and Trulov's kiss would wake up. I think I asked if it had been Medusa and you're like, oh, I should kiss it. The other thing that happened in that, I remember distinctly because y'all were like,

Ronnie, is this dwarf you? Do you remember that? And Ryan was like, I don't know. Yeah, I had a feeling. And it wound up being true. We had another call back to episode one and or two, I believe, in the form of Maxwell. Oh, my God. Maybe a character, I never thought we'd get to hear.

I didn't think you'd do it. Well, I know, yeah. If you remember, Jason painted him as problematic. Oh, he's from a different time, is what Jason says. He was from a different time. He was a Maxwell apologist to you guys. And then it was just like, okay, good. well, thank goodness he's dead, and I won't have to ever be that character.

And then I thought the ethereal realm, you did pocket him. Yes, yes. You brought him back with you, so. And it makes so much sense, like, especially we got to see a flashback of Tippy's and the way that he was with, like, his dad being a douche. And, like, this, like absence of that, you know, dad-like figure, of course, Tippy is like, I'm going to go and impress the problematic ooze, you know, and, and, and, and, replace. place his crappy dad with this crappy ooze. You just keep having relationships with these emotionally withholding

father- Yeah, what's all I care about. You really need to work on yourself. I know, I know, working on, but I'm dead! Oh no, no. We'll work on that. I mean, I want to just like, round of applause for both Ross and all of you guys

for like, just how, like, I was in it. Like, I was in it in it, you know, you came in and you guessed it, but like it felt like, Because you were being fibs, it felt like we were playing with you like the whole time. Oh, good, that's so sweet. Yeah. And I knew it was a tall ask.

Like, I knew, when I knew that Ross was coming on, I was like, well, I've got a pretty tall order for him, but I can't, like, there's nothing more fun to me than seeing, like, we've had, I mean, like, Busy had a really strong moment the last episode. So did Tippy, and I was like, what if we give this weird moment? It's not, you know, two literally fibs and have, like, a professional improviser go nuts on this character. Yeah.

But it, I know it was a tall order, but you fucking crushed it. I'm so happy. I mean, yeah, you set the table so, so well for as, like, weird and complicated and surreal as this is to be dropped into it. Okay, Ross, we're going to the ethio rom. Everything you know about fantasy doesn't exist here. Memories are balls, okay? Memories is balls, plain is goo. That's really all you need to know.

And the skin is goo and weather is goo, and the ground is goo, and your thoughts are goo. Ready, go. What a moment between YouTube when you guys, when we learned, like, how they died. That was wild. So, let me tell you about that. Ross, when I knew you were coming on, I was like, it's time for me to be self-indexam. I'm going to do an improv scene with Ross Bryant. And you all are gonna watch it.

That's what we were just trying to catch your guys' scene. We're like, we get the scene, get this one traumatic memory to get started. But I knew I have these flashbacks. I've written them from before we even started episode one of what I imagined, which thank you to you two for giving me full reign to do whatever I wanted with this. I knew I didn't want it to be romantic. I knew, but I was like, well, what could it be? Like, well, what could it be?

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Unless of all the lore that we've experienced before, we have real answers. And then you were able to make decisions on your own, but the best way to do that is, I felt, I don't know if this was always the case, but yeah, when I knew Ross was coming out, I was like, well, why don't we play it out? And since it actually isn't fibs and busy,

like it technically is Phil Varell and Berignius, then yeah, why don't I give myself a little present? Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's cool for us, because as the characters, we don't remember this, and we're learning it for the first time. That's right. And it's just like really thrilling to see that play out

because it is like an echo of what you might have imagined. Yeah, and you have a nice job, by the way. Y'all nailed that scene was so good. Again, it was one of those moments I had, I'm like, oh right, I'm in this. I'm in this show. I should remember I'm in this TV show. I did, I did like, yeah, want your character

to be an extension of the dungeon master. Like there's not, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's really tricky to be like, you're kind of an NPC, but also kind of a player that has agency at the moment. I felt so comfortable. But it is that thing of like in the home game

when like my friend from out of town is gonna be here on Saturday. Can you feel like coming and play this character? Someone who's very important by the way? You just felt very embraced and taken care of it. Okay, good, good. Yeah. What was it like for y'all?

Did y'all have any inkling that you were connected in that way? Not, I mean, I knew, obviously we both knew that we were like skellies. I was wondering if, because we'd done so much joking like no one knows what Eun-Zook looks like, like no one's seen, you know, the Wizard of Ungs. So I had like this moment where I was thinking that that was going to be like what that was.

But then when you like this thing about running away and being chased and like that's how you deal with like problems. Like we as we spoke about with like he became an adventurer but also it's the running away. That was when it started to like hit that maybe that those were like a connected. The connected thing like the running and the chasing. And then of course, you know, we got to see more of Busy's ambition, the fact that, you know, it's culturally expected for her to do a certain role, but that isn't what she wants to do. And of course, being demoted is like her nightmare.

Absolute nightmare. I'm, you know, at one point I might ask, I might ask FleshBizzy if I can see a clipboard. We'll see. I do. I want to be like, when can I see the clipboard, though? I want to see that clipboard. Amazing. What was it like for you?

It was, yeah, I had an inkling that we might be connected mostly in, it was during Bizi's most recent flashback prior to this episode. And I was like, okay, I feel like our paths are going to intersect somehow because we're both having these sort of shocking out-of-body flashbacks. And it really hit home when I felt like I might have been onto something when I asked earlier in the episode that, oh, is it going to be about how you guys died? And I was like, because that's the biggest question of Fibbs's life or his un-life. So it was just, it was very satisfying because I don't think I would have put it together like

that. I love that it spans decades, this like game of cat and mouse. You know, the weird inspiration for that comes from Minority Report. Love that movie. I was going to ask if it was a, this is how you lose the time. because it reminded me of that a little bit. Oh, interesting. Just the idea that this guy is going to be responsible for something bad, which means he's got to go.

Yeah. But also, why? Like, this is a fun, you know, a job to do. And without him, there's not, you know, busy's not challenged at all. Yeah, it's going to be fun to process, because I was feverishly, I was paying attention, but at a certain point I was just like so enwrapped

in the scene, I stopped taking notes, but I'm gonna have to go back in a lot. write down a bunch of notes. So I'm like, oh, that was, what they mentioned was very important. If I go back and look at all the lore we've built up so far. Oh, yeah, a lot of lore. I mean, just coming in as an outsider who's never, who's engaging with this story for the first time,

just seeing all the little rhyming motifs of how people are defined by, like, the trauma of the childhood. These people are finding out negotiating this story from their past, that they're unearthing, and how bad memories come at, you when you're not looking for them, that they ambush you, that it's not something that you can kind of seek to process that emotions are chaotic and they'll hit you when you least expect them in this kind of like first-eating the Madeline kind of way. Yeah, it's very cool how we're telling

this sort of meta story about memory affecting the present and are you trapped by it or can you overcome it. That's one of the things I love about this game, Dungeons and Giants are just role-playing games in general? It's like the number one question you always want to ask a role player is, are you okay? Yeah. It's like, you decided these things on some levels. So yeah, it rings true for this too, that every single one of you has experienced

some real, real stuff with your character. Focus features in Blumhouse present, obsession. When I have a crush on a guy, no one knows. Be careful. I wish to keep love me more than anyone in the entire world. Who you wish for. Obsession is 96% fresh on rotten tomatoes. I love you so, so, so, so much.

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Like, there's a big friend of me that actually loves that Tippy was the one who, like, like, really hit it, you know? Because that is Tippy's character. Like, there wasn't going to be this thing happening without him, even... I was like, there's no... I honestly didn't think that would be the case because I almost threw it in as a bit, like, well, I just got hit by this orb, surely standing there,

doing nothing, isn't going to bring this thing down. And then it did. And then we got to have a little love cat. Funny bit, funny big. You know, Occam's Razor does sound like a D&D spell, so. Yeah, what I had that moment where I was like, no, I was like, it's not love. Yeah, yeah, that's what it was. I was like, no.

No, you're dungeon master. That's great. That's great. Yeah. It makes so much sense because if we're going through, obviously, ha ha ha ha, ha, we joke. Tippy has really, like, so much of his search has been, just for like love in various different forms. Whether it comes from your horrible dad,

a problematic ooze, or a possibly Meducid statue, like Tippy is looking for that connection and for that like love in, again, whether platonic or polycule. Yeah, or polycule. No, but Tibby doesn't, no, Timi doesn't want to join the polygalyca. No, he doesn't.

He does not want to join the polycule, by the way. Yeah. And by the way, was that in your notes too? We did. It wasn't, it wasn't of our making, iffy Wadiway came in and established. If you were, shocking. There was a polycule, which is amazing. I know, I know we're about to wrap up, but one last thing, what did you, for Tippi learning about that Pekara, I mean, I know you're, this is meta. Yeah.

But like, what was it like for you, Jason, to see Pekara actually giving a, caring about Tippi? I think it was, you know, I had the same feeling, like, after. I died in the last episode and was listening to everybody talk. I was like, I care about that. I was touched that everybody cares so much about this little goblin. And Pecora, Pecora, Pecara, you know, tomato tomato. It's good that his attempts aren't lost on her and that she feels maybe some attraction or being drawn to him.

and I hope it works out. You know, that's all I say. Well, we'll find out what works out and how we get worked over when we go from self-love to self-loathing on the next episode of Goblin Mode because we're about to throw down with ourselves and make sure you tune in to find out

exactly how that plays out on Geek & Sundry or Refined Podcast or Served. Thank you so much, and we'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. Lots of places can expose you to identity theft. Oh, no. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds

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