Being black and seeing the treatment of a certain character and player
So I’m gonna be a massive defender for a moment, and I know this conversation has been had so many times, but at this point, I’m kind of fed up as a Black person in this fandom every week regarding the treatment and words used towards Aabria. It would be 1 thing if it was just the character Taisha, but when people say Aabria shouldn’t be at the table that is a micro aggression but it also really irks me and shows that people don’t understand her character, the many Black themes in her character, and the way she acts and just throws it off as she’s mean, interrupting, taking up space, or is acting high and mighty. And at this point, it’s like some people are actively watching with their eyes closed, so let me rant for a moment.
(Just want to say you are allowed to dislike the character of Taisha that’s completely fine and reasonable that some characters you simply will not like this is just for some of the weird people who throw around that she’s inconsistent and that aabria should not be at the table)
To start off, the view that Taisha is a mother and was described as motherly so she should be nice and accepting is such a narrow-minded way to view matriarchs and the idea of motherhood. And I notice many people are viewing it through a white-only lens and not taking into account how a culture and upbringing can affect mothers. There are multiple ways to be motherly. I see so many aspects of how Taisha takes no shit and how when someone raises their voice at her or comes at her, she bites back in my own mother and is it healthy or good? No, but that’s a character flaw, and it’s like everyone at the table especially Julien and bolaire are allowed to have 1 flaw but her. I’m also glad this other critique died down, but when the campaign first started, i had seen so many people call Taisha a horrible mother for abandoning Hal and her children when we know that wasn’t the case. We know they were old enough to know why she went on this path, shadia was teenager and alogar was an adult, so this just isn’t the case, and I feel like people for a weird reason wouldn’t accept that. Not to mention that aabria herself had to go on her tumblr account and post about how she found it extremely weirds people’s narrow minded view of motherhood and Taisha and how people kept assuming she just up and left her family
Another complaint I see that irks me so much because it’s filled with so many bad faith takes is that Aabria is playing Taisha to be abrasive and mean towards other pc and getting no pushback from NPCs when she does it to them. When Taisha was established as hard-edged but also kind to those she cherishes, we got that in episode one during the funeral, but that doesn’t mean characters’ feelings and emotions don’t change and evolve, and it’s obvious many don’t see the obvious real-world inspiration of Black struggles and slavery in the Orcs who were subjugated and the Old Path Faithful who were hunted and is now being directly threatened. She should not be this nice and calm motherly figure; there is not one way to be a matriarch and community leader; there are many, and I’m not saying you have to like it, but I’ve seen so many write it off as Aabria being annoying and just trying to create conflict and not playing the character right, but apparently, Julien is allowed to be mean, create character conflict, and have interesting flaws but Taisha can’t be mean to Occtis during the Seeker arc even though it made complete sense for the character; she just basically committed an unholy rite that goes against her order and why she left her family behind, and she’s confused but also angry because Occtis, while not at fault, was an anathema to her, and she needed to go against the order/community she holds dear all for him, and he showed that power to the circles briefly when defending Valeus, which would of course make her go, “Oh shit, I made the wrong decision.” But no it’s just aabria being annoying and trying to make Taisha a main character or steal the spotlight when we’ve seen her give spotlight to characters like Julien with the Thjazi corpse scene (even though she does forget this in episode 31 which is reasonable they’re over 30 hours into a dnd campaign I can go back through every critical role campaign and see every single time someone at the table forgot information that changed a scene or retconned something)
The last thing I’ll say is to the parasocial people who said that she wouldn’t let matt role play and he was put off during the seekers arc and that she’s too loud and to the people saying you don’t want the only black person there at the table or she should go realize your micro aggressions and yes that’s what it is