#cad & essek

[sky-scribbles]

I'm very emotional about Essek quoting Caduceus, because Caduceus said that to Trent. Essek was very much not there. Which means that Cad has said that to Essek on some completely separate occasion! Maybe a moment in the Blooming Grove, Essek quietly gardening, telling Caduceus that he's been so content, lately. And he can't help but feel guilty for that.

And Cad just putting a hand on his shoulder and telling him it's okay. Carrying the pain constantly isn't going to make him any better or more moral. Pain doesn't make people. Love makes people.

[cureofthenonesense]

My favorite babies

[towards-toramunda]

Every member of the mighty nein has hair long enough to braid and that’s very important to me. They should have a braid train while getting ready for the fjorester wedding. Edit: never mind Kingsley had short hair the last time we saw them so they can be the end of the train.

[sea-buns]

Been wondering how Essek has been doing without teleport in the wake of the Apogee Solstice, but we all know that man is teleporting anyway. Dude is collapsing on arrival from the amount of times he’s had to recast to get where he wanted to go cuz he’d rather take on the damage and extreme risk of death than admit that he’s been bested by Ludinus and his pet rock-god.

The image of him continuously appearing in front of the Nein with blood streaming out of every hole in his face. And Caleb’s just like,

“Uh,,, heyy Schatz maybe we should stop using that spell? Especially when you are traveling alone–”

“Not to worry Caleb, everything is under control. Probability is my specialty, and as such, I can assure you I have already devised a method that greatly reduces the risk of incurring any severe repercussions.“

*he says knowing full well he’s been wasting an obscene amount of Fortune’s Favors just to vaguely get here within an inch of his life*

[thecritterinyourwall]

As someone who hasn’t watched campaign 3 but is still deeply in the trenches for the mighty nein, I am absolutely scrambling to figure out what’s happening in bells hells rn.

All I know is that hot boi is back, astrid is in a smut shop and pumat is having an existential breakdown

And I’m insane and delighted about all of this

[gilmores-glorious-blog]

dariax canonically acespec!!!!!!!!!!!!

[c-kiddo]

watching the part people told me abt of ep102 with chet confronting ludinus about molaesmyr and after hearing him talk about it i do think caduceus should be able to beat ludinus to death with a rock

[hello-eeveev]

For the ask game:

All the boys in the mighty nein... are doing what? 👀👀

They are being ace-spec! Caduceus and Essek are canonically on the asexual spectrum, and I have loooong since headcanoned Fjord as demisexual and Caleb as grey ace! (Like, since the pirate arc for Fjord, Caleb since… idk forever I guess. He just gave me vibes periodically throughout the whole campaign.)

“All the boys in the mighty nein are aspec” is a little song I sing to myself sometimes (to the tune of “camptown races”) so that’s where the “title” comes from!

This what written around the same time as On the Nature of Attraction and tbh there hasn’t been much thought put into this idea outside of there being a discussion about asexuality and this little exchange:

“So we know that Caduceus isn’t interested at all and Fjord needs to feel comfortable with someone first, and now you two…” Jester looked between Caleb and Essek.

“Ah, no thank you,” Essek said.

Caleb shrugged. “Largely neutral.”

She gasped. “So that means all the boys in the—wait!” She turned to Kingsley, who was relaxing near the hot spring some fifty feet away. “Kingsley! How boy are you feeling today?”

Kingsley looked to Jester, then off to the side as they considered it. “Eh?” they called back, hand wobbling back and forth in a so-so gesture.

Jester slammed her hands on the ground and leaned close into Caleb and Essek’s personal space. “All the boys in the Mighty Nein are aspec*! That’s so cool!”

“Is it?” Essek asked.

“Of course! Especially because in all my books, all of the guys are so horny. Like, all the time. It’s cool to know that that’s not always true!”

*figuring out the language to use here is difficult because the word ‘aspec’ feels so out of place with the language typically used in critical role? What do???

So yeah. Just boys being ace-spec :) just guys being pals on the ace spectrum :)

[nellasbookplanet]

Jester and Fjord both have little to no interest in or knowledge of politics or current events, I feel like they'd be better at general life advice and like, How To Stay Alive and How To Balance Adventuring With Family/Business/Other Goal advice

Caleb would give solid advice and probably has a lot of contacts to share because of his connections in the academy and cobalt soul, but I also feel like he'd either be very busy fighting corruption, doing research, and grading papers, or he'd be retired, in which case Let Him Rest

Caducues is so isolated from the general goings on of Exandria and generally doesn't know or doesn't care about all that, he would be so bad at this job. Would probably give pretty good spiritual advice and general life advice, though

Beau and Yasha strike me as having the same vibe of Allura and Kima in c2: Beau has so many connections (access to cobalt soul archives and teleportation circles!) and so much knowledge and general problem solving abilities to share, and meanwhile Yasha would be there like "I don’t know about all this but I could come with you and help fight your big bad or lend you this neat sword"

Essek would be a solid choice largely because he's already been an adventurer mentor of sorts to the nein, he knows the ropes and he has a lot of knowledge on both the political and the arcane to share, but he’s also a hunted man and would probably be hard to get ahold of and no longer have access to connections (other than the nein and the nein's future descendants) and resources to share

Veth, like Essek, is already a mentor of sorts! She runs a baby adventurer summer camp! She, like Fjord and Jester, has so much advice to give on how to balance family life with adventuring! She has a decent grasp of current events even if she doesn’t care all that much, and her closeness to Caleb probably gives her access to a lot of empire connections

Kingsley would be less of an Allura and more of a Gentleman, I suspect. He has Molly’s deep caring but Lucien's saviness and hunger for power. As the Plank King he would have access to information and items and connections gallore, and as someone who was himself brought into this world by adventurers he'd probably be happy to help future parties, even if he would be a dick about it. Also it would be very funny.

[sadmages]

I need to not watch cr2 141 in the train on my way to school fucking crying in de stiltecoupe

[cringefaecompilation]

I always wondered how people can take the meta of this user serious, when 99% of the character meta is about characters they say they don't like and 1% is meta about "fave" characters......

it's so odd since they don't even seem to be having a good time. all they do is talk about how much imogen sucks and how she's going to turn evil and how much she hates the male* characters and makes fun of them for being traumatized (i've seen some "female characters only" cr fans do that, but not imogen herself) because they're still sour about fandom reaction to campaign 2. all of their complaints about imogen are just thinly veiled complaining about the fandom. they think drawing her with glasses is traumatizing to laura bailey because some jerks bullied her for her jester art choices. clearly the second campaign truck a chord with them and they have never gotten over it.

if you are angry about the fandom of something you liked tainting it for you and do not like the sequel... have you considered just... going into another series and leaving this one behind? maybe talk about stuff you actually like instead of complaining about the characters until the cast says things that you want to hear?

*and ashton and fcg. though i have not seen one single person who loves imogen hate on fcg myself, statistically i guess there'd have to be at least one.

[fairymonk]

Will you be making any gifs for tlovm season 3?

I don't know if it will be as much as I used to, with there only being 1 episode a week, plus my sister is in town the first week of episodes. but I do still plan to make them! especially cute vaxleth moments.

[hanaaria]

HOLY SHIT LAST EPISODE TIME???????

[cuteasdeath]

With Caleb's eidetic memory and simping hyperfixation he 100% knows undercommon

no because actually i’m not done talking about the “scheisse” moment yet. i’m just so,, i think a lot about how neither caleb or essek’s first language is common and they don’t know each other’s first languages, and so something about essek going beyond speaking common to a point where he instinctively uses zemnian phrases as an exclamation is so beautiful to me… do you think caleb does the same with undercommon? do you think they took the time to learn each other’s languages?? i just. the intimacy of teaching someone your first language and them teaching you theirs. it was such a small moment but the implications are rotating in my brain,, thank you matt for choosing to include this rp moment <3

[c-kiddo]

Your perspective on Essek has made me rethink how he actually behaved in the campaign. I just fell into the the blind forgiving love for him like many others.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I do need to rewatch the episodes myself as it has been a few years now. But I think it's good to be aware and not jump on the bandwagon as the default!

np :- ) ! tbh ive really enjoyed rewatching it without fandom input (like presuming things like ships and characters feelings abt stuff, various discourse, fanon stuff etc) after every episode each week. feels like seeing the characters clearer

[atypi-cals]

obsessed with Taliesin making all of his blorbos for cr as queer as possible btw