missizzy

So far, the beginning of my forties has not been much fun, honestly. But this morning, I have decided, that after seeing weeks of people going after her for issues that were more or less out of her control, I am going to write about how awesome Aabria Iyengar has once again been.


It's been a good nine months since her gnome cleric asked her god to his face if he was worth saving, which was a brilliant moment on its own, but now she's created a scene for current events on Exandria that makes it resonate all the more. Aabria was handed a difficult task with the Crown Keepers, when we haven't seen them since Kymal, and now they had to at least partly break apart so Dorian could return to the others without bringing too many people with him for the table to hold, and she had to make us feel it. Having the Spider Queen demand more than Opal was willing to give, bringing the consequences of the actions the player had very much chosen home to roost, may have been obvious enough a move.
But it was still pretty daring to really go all out with it the way she did, to have her turn on her friends and just increase in deadliness as the encounter went on, when that would be reminiscent of the near-TPK we'd already just had, and have even the less evil deities be willing to let Opal be destroyed even more than death would do to increase their own chances of survival. And then there was a the really smart move, to have the gemstones around, and to have them trigger flashbacks, so we could at least get some of the important moments of the Crown Keepers' journey. She knew when to exact a steep price-Cyrus may have been the easiest kill, but that meant him being the one killed made sense, and had the added bonus of especially impacting the guy we were staying with. And in the end, she also knew when to call the toll taken, and ultimately allow Fyra-Rai to stay with Opal, for however much consolation that may provide.
Then she topped that off on Four Sided Dive this week. As tavern keeper, she was quite good at leading the conversation, and of course she knew what the fans cared most about; three years after the Summer of Aabria first brought her to prominence, she still hasn't lost that "one of us" energy. Plus, when they broke out For the Queen, it was her who first made the Queen the CEO and setting up the zany story that resulted in the best gaming segment that show had produced yet, and also her that gave the story its strongest twist when she went and killed another one of the characters.
Also her showing on Critical Role Cooldown was a pretty strong one, too. But it pales in comparison to what she'd pulled off already.