#THE MIGHTY NEIN HAD NO ONE

[justalittlebluetiefling]

You know, Keyleth has an advantage in that about 50% of her party was at least accounted for in the room when she volunteered them.

[shorthaltsjester]

the mighty nein - critical role

this is a place where i don't feel alone. this is a place where i feel at home.

[c-kiddo]

body-type studies of Nott/Veth. been having fun drawing nott again because of re-listening to earlier cr2 eps (like around ep30) and veths just always fun to draw anyway.

[ID: digital drawing of Nott/Veth from Critical Role on a white background with a faint beige spiral behind her, both versions are wearing simple off-white underwear. on the left is Nott, thin with green skin and messy hair and bright yellow eyes. She's stretching her arms above her head with a grumpy expression. on the right is Veth, smiling and standing more confidently. She has warm medium brown skin, dark brown hair in two braids with a thin headband. they both have thin tails and turquoise tattooed patterns around their eyes. between their heads is a yellow button. end ID.]

[stardustedknuckles]

It's looking like there's a growing divide between Campaign watchers and Tlovm watchers in terms of like. We're here for the characters. 12-episode seasons aren't. They can't be. I'm already making peace with everything we'll lose in the Mighty Nein show, and I know I will enjoy it for what it is but I also know that almost nothing that made the story so special will translate to the screen, because turning it into a show automatically means (in this day and age) that plot must be the number one priority. They've already come out and told us it's going to be different, the characters we know and love but new stories.

Because that's how this has to work. And I feel bad for campaign one lovers, because while it is certainly the easier of the two to translate to a big, overarching story, even though it's a more "traditional" high fantasy story with easier archetypal characters, the archetypes and the plot aren't what cemented most people's love for the campaign. So much of the love for critical role is stored in the interpersonal dynamics and the payoff that comes from hundreds of hours of tiny interactions that one day become cornerstones of development and even affect or dictate the plot.

There's no room for that. There's no room for Bard's Lament in a story that cannot afford to remove and replace a main character. A lot of tlovm is for people who have been here for all of campaign one. Most of it, however, isn't. It's for a new crowd. While CR may have creative control, you can bet your ass that there were months and years devoted to figuring out how to map a character-focused love of the show into a plot that hits the right beats to be viable in the show market.

And it worked. Tlovm has consistently high viewing numbers, and its popularity has brought and will continue to bring new people into the universe who have never interacted with CR previously. That's not a bad thing - imagine finishing your favorite show and discovering it has another FIVE HUNDRED HOURS of the equivalent of behind the scenes content. That's incredible for these newcomers. But man, it is in many ways a loss for us.

[revvethasmythh]

it's so funny to me that caleb and veth really did just trade off the job of intensely pining for the other at like the halfway point of the campaign. like, imo, nott in the early days did not behave in any real romantic or even romance-adjacent ways toward him--I imagine it would be very hard to even think in that way when you hate what you look like so much, have such low self-esteem, and are actively lying about your entire past, including a secret husband. caleb, on the other hand, is kind of diving directly back into the sort of relationship he had with astrid and eadwulf. very close, very intimate, we-huddled-for-warmth-together-and-oops-it-led-to-something-else sort of thing. he is the one who expresses that he's fine with it if people think he and nott are romantically together when they're talking to keg. nott is the one who pushes back on that. he calls her his life partner. unknowingly, he compares his feelings for nott to nott's feelings for yeza. his behavior only really starts to change after he finds out about veth's husband because suddenly all of that other stuff is rendered inappropriate in retrospect. but even then he compliments her to yeza over dinner in the most awkward of ways, he admits to being jealous, he calls yeza "a lucky man" to have her, he stares at veth and yeza closed bedroom door for far too long, he creates an entire arcane tower with room for her family just so she'll stay with him. in general, his behavior is not, um, totally and completely platonic about it, you know?

like, veth's feelings for caleb are canonical and therefore indisputable in their existence, but caleb in the early days was not that dissimilar to how veth was acting near the end of the campaign. it really paints a picture of "right person, wrong time" in the way things just didn't line up for them. or, as veth would say: "in another world, maybe"

[isthatacalzone]

living is being in a room of 12500 people who will all shout NINE whenever someone rolls a nine on stage while watching a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors play dungeons and dragons

[drawsmaddy]

[ID: A digital illustration of Essek Thelyss and Caleb Widogast from Critical Role. Essek is dipping Caleb, holding Caleb by the waist, and Caleb holds onto Essek's neck as they kiss. End description.]

A kiss commission I did for @defilerwyrm!!

[worddevourer]

I'm thinking about the absurdity of everything that happened to the Mighty Nein when they finally make it to Rosohna.

Like, imagine being the Essek for that.

Here's a group of adventurers. They have a surprising number of humans in their midst. That's a little suspicious considering the war with the Empire. After a few questions, they appear to be the world's most obvious and transparent spies. Like... Come on, they don't even really seem to know the region.

Well, whatever, guess they're gonna be treated appropriately-

Oh, that's a beacon. In a moment of stress, they proceed to pull out the most valuable relic of your people, which was stolen, or lost, and just... hand it back over to you.

You (as Essek), know about 95% of how they got their hands on it, because you've been keeping tabs on it because you're the one who handed it over in the first place. And here it is. In the throne room. They have no idea what it is, but they know the Bright Queen wants it, and they seem to earnestly want to make friends, and really would just like one of their members to get her husband back.

And the whole thing gets even stupider because you (that is to say Essek), decide that your best chance of keeping everything secure is to be the one who keeps an eye on them, and these dumbasses categorically refuse to stop trying to befriend you. You are specifically, actively trying to stop them from getting you caught and executed for treason, and they're like 'hey, you want to come over for dinner or something? We have a hot tub.'

[pocketgalaxies]

veth: caleb, you taught me feather fall! we can all hold hands and you and me cast feather fall on everybody–

caleb: i don't have that prepared today–

veth: yeah you do! we'll be fine!

jester: i'm not brilliant with mathematics or physics and stuff but i feel like we're not gonna make it through the waterfall and the geyser is just going to shoot us up into the ceiling

fjord and beau: OR....we could get thrown out of the cave and into the sky :)

caleb: i am pretty good with math and the idea that you think you can predict the direction that you will be thrown into the sky by jumping into a geyser is Ludicrous.

yasha: but the thing is if we all hold hands, and we can have a contest like whoever lets go loses

caleb: oh well she convinced me. i change my mind.

[aeoris4lovers]

shitty essek thelyss aesthetic

[katlovesdbh]

A Very Cursed Thought;

So, Essek has his wrist pocket spell, yes? I have read a few fics where it could be dispelled, but most usually in the Fanon I've seen it has been ruled that it drops when he is killed.

Please please imagine that Essek gets got (and no worries, he has 2 (two) Clerics and a whole rest of the Nein invested in his eventual survival, he'll be fine), but yeah he Gets Got and, as the stuff spills out of his dimensional wrist pocket, please imagine the sound Sonic the Hedgehog Makes when he gets got and the golden rings pop out.

That is all XD

[mourn-and-watch]

honestly i didn't want to get invested in beau & molly's friendship because i knew the spoiler but i did it anyway unintentionally and oh boy these 26 episodes of their shenanigans were completely worth it but also since molly's death I haven't taken a L once as their enjoyer. like molly really died in front of beau and made her speedrun through an existential crisis and also taliesin said molly would think that he'd always have a one-up on her. she got his tattoo and then got impaled the next day just like he did (yay! just besties things) and then also got a cursed fucked up eye right in the middle of it just like the one he had. she liked to think there was a town somewhere where people still believed he was a king. it's less related but seeing her and lucien annoy the shit out of each other was also endearing. when kingsley woke up the first thing she did was giving him a middle finger like she wasn't one of the people directly participating in his resurrection because she wanted to. it's like a schrodinger's friendship. molly was six feet under for the most of the show so they haven't actually interacted all this time but somehow put-on pettiness was stronger than death indeed

[luminousstardust]

New official Essek art and description on the back of the ReAction figure!!!

[theclockistickingwrite]

Essek says, “I think we’ve met before.”

The Scourger in the cell lifts his head. That shock of red hair is so bright in the dark. “Have we?”

(Bren has never been the author of his own story).

[suaimhneas-gairid]

Tusk Love (8XX PD)

[dearestpiers]

MOLLYMAUK NEVER GOT TO SEE BEAU AND YASHA FALL IN LOVE!!!! HE DIDNT GET TO GO TO THEIR WEDDING!!!! HE DIDNT GET TO SEE CALEB GROW AND OPEN UP TO THE GROUP!!!! HE DIDNT GET TO FIND OUT ABOUT VETH AND HER HUSBAND AND HER KID!!!! HE DIDNT GET TO SEE THAT KID BECOME A MOODY TEENAGER!!!! HE DIDNT GET TO SEE FJORD PROPOSE TO JESTER!!!!!