Digital Identities at Play

On the original site, this image and the clickable text surrounding it works as an organizing principle for Melanie Yergeau's webtext (here, you can click anywhere on the image to visit the webtext site)

Thinking about Identity

When thinking about the establishment and performance of identity, I want to consider more on how we choose to identify (or disidentify) in various different ways. Identity is not a stable singular entity, as our readings like Yergeau’s “aut(hored)ism” and Ryerson’s “Disidentification, Disorientation, and Disruption: Queer Multimodal Rhetorics in Queer Comics.” In Yergeau’s piece, for instance, when she describes how she is “anxious about authoring me, much in the way I am anxious about others authoring me,” she is pondering how her positionality in relation to her autism as labeled and diagnosed is always in flux depending on who she is talking to, about what, and in what context. Throughout her webtext, the notion of the function of such labels, and what gets read into having them and seeking them goes alongside a constant questioning of what it means to be autistic, what is attributable / characteristic of / emblematic of being on the spectrum.

This is shown, for example, when Yergeau mentions a popular forum where questions are often asked about whether certain behaviors are influenced by or “because of” someone’s autism. Performance of given behaviors, modes of acting and being in the world, are at question and play in the construction of (and potential destabilization of) a given identifier. The Ryerson piece, similarly, focuses in on disidentifications in particular as they are at play in queer comics specifically. Drawing on performance of disidentifications from José Esteban Muñoz’s Disidentifications: Queers of color and the performance of politics, Ryerson connects Muñoz’s multimodal examples of disidentifying performance, where people “neither identify with or counter-identify against the dominant culture, preferring instead to work on or against the dominant ideology by undermining and transforming that ideology’s cultural logics from within” to visuals in the queer comics she chooses to examine for her project.

In both of these webtexts, I am drawn in particular to the way that identity is considered as an always in flux negotiation, even in (especially in) situations where the material stakes for such identity and the ways in which they can be negotiated or changed are limited and incomplete.

Setting the Scene

In this project, I want to try to combine this interest in identity and performance and how it shifts in a rather literal performance setting that also introduces another element: play. I want to describe and consider the performances of Critical Role’s cast of voice actors in the first episode of their new Dungeons and Dragons campaign for the third iteration of their liveplay tabletop role-playing show. I want to take a closer look at how they are able to establish their characters through their performance, through their voice acting, physical embodiment, and the digital enhancements on the screen that display character details and official artwork at times throughout as they speak and introduce themselves. These character stat cards [insert character stats portraits] often also come back up when the party is in combat, for the viewing audience to have and easier time referencing relevant details about stats and classes in the moment. To this end, I want to look at the first of the first four characters to be introduced (and then add more character analyses as I continue with this project and revise later on): Imogen, a human sorcerer played by Laura Bailey; Laudna, a human Hollow One sorcerer/warlock (Hollow Ones being a type of undead) played by Marisha Ray; Ashton, an Earth Genasi barbarian played by Taliesin Jaffe; and Fresh Cut Grass (FCG for short), an aeormaton (basically artificial constructs like robots, but originating from a particular civilization called Aeor in the campaign setting) cleric played by Sam Riegel. In doing this, in describing and considering how these characters are set up right at the start, at how identity is dealt with in play, I’m not at all sure what I will find; but I hope the intersection of play and performance would reveal something about the engagement we may feel when we perform identity, more about a potential connection that playing with identity might engender in some settings.

For brief context, in the setup of the campaign that happens offscreen, some characters were already introduced and have knowledge of each other or are traveling together at the time that the show starts. We the audience get introduced to the first two characters, Imogen and Laudna, in a couple of scenes alone where they are traveling together before we then shift over to another scene where we are introduced to FCG and Ashton, who are also staying together at the start of their adventures before the larger party all meets. Three additional characters, which I won’t be discussing here (yet) are introduced later on and come from a prior aired mini campaign that part of the regular Critical Role cast took part in during the summer before the campaign started airing.

In the scenes that introduce Imogen and Laudna, they are first riding a sort of sky tram in a city composed of interconnected spires. They eventually reach their destination, a university, where they are seeking an answer to an inquiry they made about being able to do research in their archives. They then head towards a market to pick up a few groceries for the woman they are staying with in the city.

In the scenes introducing Ashton and FCG, they are both currently living in a poor, cramped burrow house of one of the spires, and we first see Ashton be woken up by a non-player character they are living with, and then eventually call FCG over to “come downstairs” as they try to figure out what to do with their day.

Images are screenshots from the livestreams of the show, compiled by tthe fan-run CritRoleStats site and designed by official character artist for the campaign @agarthanguide.

Official artwork by Clara Daly of the city of Jrusar showing its interconnected spires.

jrusar a city of interconnected spires by clara daly.jpg

Imogen Temult

Official character art done by Hannah Friedrichs. Imogen in an outfit that combines both adventuring practicality and feminine, flowing silhouettes throughout.

When first prompted by the DM, Bailey begins to describe her character in what the official YouTube captions describe as a “light southern accent”—her physical description is that of a “young lady with long, light purple hair, a yellow scarf around my neck, I look a bit, uh, maybe shy, like I’m trying to hide myself from other people.” Imogen is described as wearing a light blue dress, and Bailey mentions how she is currently seemingly “keeping myself tucked back a little bit” and “mildly uncomfortable.” In character, Imogen reaches out to the only other person that they know in the scene, Marisha Ray’s character, Laudna. Imogen reaches out to hold onto her arm as they continue traveling on the sky tram to their destination.

Establishing Character through Voice

As Bailey slips into Imogen’s accent, she first says “oh gosh!” in an approximation of the accent, and then says “well, all right” in a slightly higher voice, the accent coming through clearer, the tone gentle and almost lilting—she is smiling as she begins to speak as Imogen, and as Imogen continues talking, she continues slightly smiling most of the time, just a slight baring of teeth and uplift of the mouth that keeps her voice just a little lighter, a little higher and breathier. When the DM asks a clarifying question about her character’s race—“Human, right?”, she keeps the smile in her voice and the calm, breathy tone even as the southern accent drops when she answers the question as Imogen—“I am a human, yes.” The voice is calmer, slightly lower, and breathier than Laura Bailey’s regular speaking voice, and seems particularly measured to keep and project a calmer, low-key, shy character that can still communicate well. That is to say, the voice is pleasing and soothing, even if the person wielding the voice is clearly soft-spoken and perhaps a bit anxious at their surroundings and current situation. We get the sense that this is the voice of a character that can be charming if they put their mind to it, and that perception is in no small way aided by the concurrent display of Imogen’s stats to the side of the screen in this clip, which point out that her highest attribute is her Charisma score (an 18 out of a possible 20 total). In this way, Imogen’s voice reflects her stronger attributes.

This is one subtle but nonetheless important way of establishing in-character actions and identifiers that make sense, in one way or another, with rolled attributes, something that can be very important in Dungeons and Dragons games. If a DM does not feel that a player is acting in a way that is consistent with the character they are playing, they might throw unforeseen obstacles or failures in the player’s path, not out of vindictiveness or spite, but because it fails to make sense with the roleplaying aspect and abilities that they are meant to have for their character. For example (albeit a rather stereotypical one), a barbarian whose highest attributes are Strength and Constitution and lowest attribute is Intelligence probably wouldn’t be the mastermind for the adventuring party’s elaborate museum heist plan, or if they were, it probably wouldn’t go well. This is not to say that all characters must always behave in ways that are consistent with every attribute they choose or with their backstory, as a character’s identity can and probably will change as a campaign evolves. But such changes need to “work” from a storytelling angle—do they make sense given the actions the character has taken so far, their underlying motivations, their bonds and conflicts during the campaign? And consistency does not mean stagnant characterization either. A bard can be charmingly awkward, a thief may be unable to steal without first drinking (something that, ironically, can affect their relevant attribute in pickpocketing, Dexterity, if they go over the top; one of the player characters in Critical Role’s last campaign actually had this exact issue at the beginning of their campaign, though they slowly got over it). The need to try and behave in character, which includes establishing and regularly evaluating what “in-character” might look like for a given player is crucial because one of the joys and reasons for playing a tabletop role-playing game is, indeed, to play a role. Yes, a fantastical role, but still a person with flaws and shortcomings, just like in real life, in the pursuit of a fun story, a collaborative and creative adventure that a party can come together to play out. In pursuit of that good storytelling, replete with satisfying buildup and payoff wherever possible, performing an identity is a must as well as a pleasure for most players.

Physical Description, Gestures, and Mannerisms

As she describes what Imogen is wearing in the first person, she gestures to herself to demonstrate the length of Imogen’s hair, how she is wearing the scarf, and how she is generally carrying herself. Her hands stay close to her body as she gestures, modulated and reserved. She frequently clasps or lightly wrings her hands together as Imogen speaks, as if her hesitancy in her environment goes all the way down to the way she can physically hold herself in the space. The wringing of the hands is almost a method of containing herself and her nerves over the environment she finds herself in. Her shoulders sit slightly hunched forward, again like she's trying to hold herself inward in the unfamiliar environment she finds herself in. This corresponds very closely to what Bailey actually says in her spoken description of what Imogen would be doing, how she would be standing and positioning herself on the sky tram, at the onset of the scene where we first see her and Laudna.

Wrapping up her description, Bailey-as-Imogen addresses herself directly to Marisha Ray's character, Laudna, in the play out of the scene. "I'm gonna just kinda hold on to your arm, Laudna, if that's all right," she says. As she does so, she is physically at an angle to look at Laudna and is again wringing her hands and slightly nodding her head as she says 'if that's all right.' Her physicality here indexes both her nerves and a kind of diffident, polite way of relating to her traveling companion; the head nodding is accompanied by a slight tight smile that could almost be a grimace, and the entire effect is that we as the audience can clearly see how, even in the midst of her discomfort, one of Imogen's foremost concerns is trying to give off a mild, nonobtrusive impression. She seeks Laudna's approval and reassurance in the request to hold onto her arm, rather than just grabbing her arm, and tries to put on a brave face about her own unease at the moment. When Laudna asks "You feeling okay, a little sick?" Imogen replies "I just [sighs] you know, I never get used to these things." Again, Imogen understates for the purpose of keeping things amenable, but from her physicality and the way she draws breath anyone in the audience and anyone interacting directly with her, like Laudna, can clearly see how tense she is, even in that small moment.

Even across her own physical description of her character, Bailey paints a vivid picture of a character who looks mild-mannered as well. Her signature color scheme, from the outset, is largely composed of muted pastels, with the yellow scarf adding a cheery pop that is nonetheless nonthreatening and doesn't take away from the overall calmness of her outfit choices. The actual outfit she has on is feminine and flowing, with detailing on the dress, vest and scarf showing smooth curves and few harsh angles. Even her more traditional, rugged adventurer's gear, like her armbands, suspender and belt, khaki shorts, and boots, are still understated, with thin silhouettes that don't detract too much from the rest of the outfit, or the character wearing such an outfit. If an audience member can imagine Imogen in her introductory moments, perhaps they get the sense that this adventuring gear is new, and her wringing and picking gestures at herself might even land more often on that equipment, again emphasizing her discomfiture and even alluding to her new status as an adventurer and traveler in this land and story.

Playing with Identity

All of these physical embodiments and the art created work together to again express more of the personality of Imogen for the audience in the moments they first meet her. What's more, all of these physical embellishments, combined with the voice acting, showcase a care and effort taken to playing an imaginary character that is both engaging to watch and I'm sure engaging to play off of at a table. In a Dungeons and Dragons game, roleplaying isn't always the first priority for a group of players, but in Critical Role it definitely is, guided in no small part by that particular group's own experience with acting. Engaging in that roleplay paints a vivid picture for an audience that might be inspired to take on more roleplaying risks in their own home games, to create a character that they have a vested interest in playing a certain way and getting to see interact with their fellow players' characters. While we often consider the stakes of identity creation, performance, and investiture in real life, I believe some of the value of taking a look at the interesting ways we create identities in play is to remind us of how identity formation can also be a joyous experience, and experimentation with interests and hobbies, with communities and different social spheres, can engage all of our senses and enable some of the confidence we may need to shift more readily between identities, to recognize the positive aspects of identity as performance: some performances can always be open to change.

Laudna

When she's asked to describe her character after Imogen asks to hold onto her arm, Marisha Ray starts off in a kind of trans-Atlantic accent for Laudna. Laudna is "a young-ish looking woman" with "long scraggly dark hair with a shock of white going through the top of her bangs," a rock chisel being used to keep the hair in place in a sort of half bun. She has pale skin and her eyes, Ray says, are large and "a little bulbous with dilated pupils, almost...doll-like." She is also "very thin" and gaunt. She has dark lips and is wearing tattered clothing, a black skirt and a "blood maroon" blouse, with a belt carrying "tools and odds and ends" alongside a dead rat wearing a bird skull. "I made him myself," Laudna gushes, to which the DM nods sagely and replies "Gross" with no small amount of respect. Even Laudna's smaller character portrait in her stat card, inlaid in the video clip, drips blood (or some suspiciously dark substance, at the very least) along the border to concord with the visual theme of eerieness that Ray wants to establish for her character.

Setting the Tone (of Voice)

To reflect her own natural tone of voice and inflection, Marisha Ray often chooses accents and tones at the game that make the most of her lower register of voice. Laudna is no exception, as her confident, eloquent trans-Atlantic cadence reveals. At the same time, this particular accent, combined with Laudna's physical character description and stats, starts to reveal a bit more about the character and give possible hints to some of her backstory. A trans-Atlantic accent is, notably, intentionally artificial and particularly dated, so when Laudna is being deliberately cagey about her exact age by seemingly appearing young-ish yet older than Imogen, even though from their character portraits an obvious age difference is not yet visible, it calls into question just how old she might actually be, and where (and when) she might have come from.

Moreover, when Laudna speaks, it's easy to contrast her style with Imogen's--much less verbal filler, more confidence, a bit more volume. From her mini stats card, the audience can see that Laudna is multiclassed as both a sorcerer and a warlock--meaning that, like Imogen, Charisma is her most relevant attribute for the purposes of spellcasting. We see that her stats reflect this, as Charisma is her highest stat, followed by Constitution. Overall, her stats are middling to high, except for Strength which is extremely low. Her voice and manner of speaking help belie this--she has endured and seen things, but she has clearly mainly gotten through on the strength of her words, and perhaps her magic, rather than brawn (and we can even discuss this a bit more when we get to physical descriptors and gestures). While we get less insight into how Laudna is directly feeling than we did from Imogen's description, it's not hard to tell--even in this short clip--what kind of personality she seems to have from what she says and how she says it. Her description of herself is detailed and evocative, unflinchingly precise with some of the more disturbing aspects of her appearance. On the contrary, Ray-as-Laudna's tone of voice as she describes her appearance seems to be reveling in each eerie aspect of it. Laudna might look scary, but she's clearly quite comfortable with how she looks, and might even take pleasure in how her appearance may make others uncomfortable. She approaches describing herself the way one might talk about a creepy character in a campfire story--with appropriate enthusiasm to invest the audience. When she pauses before describing her own eyes as doll-like, the pause is not from hesitation, but rather for dramatic effect, with her voice lilting upwards on the last word, doll-like, to further punctuate the strangeness of her eyes. In fact (and I'm cheating a bit here, bringing in knowledge from later in the episode about her, but it fits so well as further proof of her attitude toward her own appearance and is right in line with the complete ease and pride Laudna--not just Ray--has with herself from the outset), Laudna will later go so far as to describe herself as "fun-scary!" in protest when Imogen tells her she might have permanently scared off some children near a town square.

A Very Deliberate Physicality

Unlike Imogen, Laudna's gestures are far more "showy" and seem designed to punctuate her statements about her appearance, her more eerie features, and her dress. For example, on the same description of her eyes as doll-like, Ray does not just pause for dramatic effect, but also spreads out both of her hands in a sort of ta-da / exhibition gesture close to her chest as she does. While Ray also sits a bit hunched, it's more of an off-kilter, creepy sort of hunch than Imogen's shy holding of herself. Ray uses close-to-body hands with expressive gestures to help project an image of Laudna as (fun) scary, making creeping gestures and hunches that make it seem like Laudna is not so much shy as just sort of used to slinking, sneaking, coiling herself almost like a snake, moving around in ways that aren't fully human and that most people might not find natural or normal.

Her outfit is again a source of this kind of creepy, kind of magnetic characterization, showcasing that she is not dressed in a way most might find comfortable, nor is she necessarily looking to be in the best physical shape or health, in some tattered clothing adorned with dead animal remains, in a thin body with gaunt features and messy hair. She certainly doesn't look like a character with a high Strength modifier, which makes sense since her Strength is a dangerously low number. And yet, Laudna is seemingly proud of some of the features of her outfit, namely her dead rat and its little skull hat, and seems completely at ease in it. Again, she seems to revel in the creepiness, the decay, the morbidity all of her outfit details seem to connote. Even her character art has her in a stance that seems to exude confidence: shoulders back (albeit slightly angled) and feet well apart in a steady stance, with hands in kind of a curled position made all the more unnerving by the sheer length of her fingers and the again very suspicious looking dark substance dripping off the fingers of one hand.

Yet another important note in the choices being made with Laudna's physicality here is that Laudna's player character is a human Hollow One, meaning that she is an undead human that is hard to kill. On the surface, that seems to explain away a lot about her disheveled, creepy appearance, right?

...Not quite!

Interestingly enough, as the Critical Role wiki entry on Hollow Ones and past characters on the show's other campaigns demonstrate, Hollow Ones don't have any inherent physical markers of their undead status--they are only revealed undead by characters who have the magical means to detect them (or, presumably, if someone saw them get killed but then come back to life). Laudna doesn't look this way because she is a Hollow One. Her appearance is fully an intentional choice by Marisha Ray to make her as "fun-scary" as possible. Laudna doesn't have to "look undead," but she actually chooses to have this appearance. Both in and out of character, Ray-as-Laudna are deliberately having fun with crafting a physicality to go along with a creepy-yet-charismatic character, and are fully aware of that every step of the way.