Hi! It’s Annie!
So I’ve talked about D&D romances, ‘Critical Role’ characters, and ‘Critical Role’ campaign comparisons. I guess it’s about time to kind of combine all of that so that I can talk about what is one of my favorite couples in all of ‘Critical Role’. And one of my favorite fictional couples I’ve ever seen in anything ever. This is also one of my favorite examples of letting things happen in D&D and it ended up so cutely! As well as the fact that, unlike some couples in ‘Critical Role’, this couple actually got their happy ending in the end. Though overall this campaign had a more wholesome feel to it than the first one (even despite the major character death), so it made sense that the ending of this campaign felt more wholesome and less tragic than the last one. Every campaign end has been pretty thematic in my opinion. There are so many things that make this couple so wonderful and give people a better understanding of romance RP that can be used in their own personal games. So I’m going to go over all of the things that make this couple absolutely amazing! MAJOR SPOILERS FOR CAMPAIGN TWO OF ‘CRITICAL ROLE’ AHEAD!!!!!
Travis and Laura:
You can’t talk about Jester and Fjord without also talking about Travis and Laura. For those of you who are unfamiliar with voice actors and ‘Critical Role’; Travis and Laura are a married couple! They are actually the only couple that are both players at the table of the ‘Critical Role’ team. There are other couples that are involved in ‘Critical Role’, but in no other instance are both player characters (unless you rightfully also count Sam and Liam). In the previous campaign Laura played a character that romanced someone else’s character at the table. Laura has said that she absolutely loves romance and really loves making it a part of her character’s storylines if she can. Travis was completely ok with this. Travis is the exact opposite of his wife in that, up until this campaign, he swore that he would never RP romance. He felt that it was really awkward and often cringed when a romantic scene would happen during the first campaign. After expressing to his wife that he entirely meant to keep with that for the second campaign; Laura decided to take this as a challenge. She swore to him that his character would end up falling for her character, which he kind of laughed at and really didn’t believe. Oh, how wrong he was. Laura Bailey, the resident badass, made the type of character that became irresistible to most everyone at the table. By the time the campaign ended, three of the six other player characters had professed that they had a crush on Jester at some point. Obviously one of those was Fjord.
The Character History:
For the people unfamiliar with these characters, I’m going to go into a brief explanation. Jester is a blue Tiefling (a devil-type humanoid with horns and a tail but is not always evil by any means) who wears adorable dresses and has a very naive and cute personality. Fjord is a green Orc (fanged humanoid that look much better than the Orcs you are probably thinking of), who has a very pirate-y backstory, loves the sea, and is the strategist of the group. When the party eventually comes together at the beginning of the campaign, Fjord and Jester have known each other for a while. They’ve already been traveling together longer than many others in the group and Jester already knows a lot more about Fjord. She already knows about Fjord’s tragic past and how he assumed the personality of his old Captain, making his southern accent not a complete truth. In fact, when Fjord eventually shows the rest of the group that his accent is actually British, Jester attempts to warn Fjord that he dropped the accent in what she perceives to be an accident. And with Jester’s more naive and lighthearted nature, and also the fact that her Mother expects her safe return, Fjord vows to protect Jester. Something that actually comes up reliably in combat during the campaign. With all this history written for Jester and Fjord, it really does make you wonder how Travis ever thought he would be immune to the charms of his wife. But you can see him making an attempt to turn the dynamic into something more older brother-younger sister towards the beginning of the campaign. Laura did not allow this to happen for long though.
Bad Timing:
One of the things I really love about this couple is that they actually took some time to develop. Both as individuals and as a couple. Though I’m sure some of it seems a bit like a hilarious troll to some, I felt that the timing that was taken was perfect. At the beginning of the campaign Jester had a huge crush on Fjord that was obvious to everyone except for maybe Fjord. Though I’m sure he was aware of it at some point. As the campaign went on, Fjord started reciprocating these feelings after seeing Jester interact with her Mother and show her deep sense of kindness and empathy towards others on multiple occasions. However, when Fjord finally realized that he also liked Jester, Jester realized that she wasn’t in a place to have a relationship. Jester realized that one of the reasons she liked Fjord was because he was the first person to show her genuine care and kindness once she had escaped her rather sheltered life. Fjord was patient as Jester actually used her own experiences and a more well-rounded world view to discover what she wanted and to set standards for herself and her life. And then when Jester had become more mature, Fjord finally made a move on Jester that was immediately reciprocated. The two remained together for the rest of the campaign and we even got to see the two tell each other that they loved each other for the first time. And what was even more shocking about this? Watching Travis essentially fall in love with his wife over again and actually instigate romance scenes. The first part isn’t shocking, but the second part…we never thought we’d see the day. Watching Travis turn bright red and bury his head in his hands after the first actual kiss scene between the two was devastatingly adorable. And watching Travis’s silly surprised grin when Laura created an incredibly deep moment between Jester and Fjord (the jellyfish scene), was almost too much to handle.
Inevitability:
Though Travis and Laura often don’t sit next to each other during games anymore, we have seen adorable interactions between Laura and Travis at the table before. Though most of them have been out of character. Laura Bailey has twice now left an award show for video games and voice actors early in order to play ‘Critical Role’. I love this because my priorities would be the same. This actually included a time when she was up for an award and left before the award was even announced. (Hell yes!!) Seeing Travis look up from the table stunned, and tell her how beautiful she looked in the middle of the game after she showed up, was heart wrenching. But watching Travis watch his wife in awe as she made it somehow impossible for Fjord to not romance Jester was just as cute. He even laughed in disbelief in the behind the scenes ‘Talks Machina’, lamenting that Laura had made it impossible for him. Poor Travis never had a chance. And Jester and Fjord really did seem to be endgame from the beginning. From the promise of protecting her, to the jellyfish scene, to Jester eventually actually healing Fjord which was easily one of the most shocking moments of the campaign. These two were inevitable. And also so incredibly cute from both the standpoint of Jester and Fjord being cute together and the standpoint of Laura making it impossible for her own husband to have any other choice with charm alone.
There’s always something about fictional couples that are also played by real life couples. One of the reasons why the K-Drama ‘Crash Landing On You’ had such good chemistry from the off was because of the actual off screen chemistry between the actors. And the chemistry always comes through with a married couple. Travis and Laura are both amazing at RP already, but I don’t think any other fictional couple will have quite the same adorable magic as this one does. It is absolute perfection and I melt into a puddle any time I look up any scenes of these two. There are so many things that came together to make this couple so great, and this is why I think they are one of my favorite fictional couples of all time. D&D made this even more personal in every way than any other form of media could have. And Laura and Travis are amazing!
See you across the pond!
Sincerely, Annie
Oreos & Peanut Butter 