#m9 reunited part 1

[your-enby-antihero]

We return to your favourite game show

✨Is Jester going to Heal or Inflict Wounds???✨

[sparring-spirals]

"Is there any way to get the image out of his head and into your head" alas, if only this party had some kind of psychic mindreading/telepathically inclined members. Perhaps even TWO.

[hello-eeveev]

you wanna know what’s so funny is that we’re all like “omg Essek could NOT shut up about Caleb 🥺💕” but like. he absolutely can.

the only times Essek brought up Caleb unprompted/without relevance to the discussion at hand were gesundheit and nighttime sendings lol. of the four uses of the phrase “my partner,” one is an off-handed mention as part of a clarification (“I have not been following the Assembly’s threads; that was more my partner’s purview.”) and the last three all happen in the span of four minutes before Essek exits the episode.

the problem is that within those last four minutes, Essek hit us with

1) showing off a zemnian phrase he learned from Caleb,

2) “he is kind. and he is smart. and he is so strong,” said with such conviction and pride and love that I don’t think I’ll ever recover, and

3) leaving the crafting party to chat with Caleb before bed

which was just. a lot. it was so much and it was so good. so much concentrated shadowgast in those four minutes

this whole ship is built on layered conversations and implications and skirting the obvious (with the exception of the last two minutes of m9 reunited) so to give us four whole minutes of Essek boasting about Caleb, praising Caleb, wanting to go talk to Caleb was particularly potent

thank you Matt Mercer for my life 💕

[somewhatsentientspellbook]

With the announcement of S3 coming later this year, I thought I'd just put into the universe my predictions for how TLOVM S3 will work. I've already covered some of this before (see here for how A Bard's Lament has the same number of letters as there are episodes in a season), but now I'm in the mood to go into more detail.

My first thoughts were of what needed to fit into this season, namely, defeating the rest of the Conclave, vestige hunting, and individual character arcs. That's a LOT, but I think I've figured out how it COULD work.

Episodes 1-3 (Marquet / Glintshore)

Raishan has just revealed herself and needs to quickly gain VM's trust. She'll tell them Ripley was helping Umbrasyl with his vestige hunt and that she's gone to Marquet to track more down. This might be a good time for Percy and Keyleth to get some character development since Percy will be interested in taking Ripley out of the picture, and Keyleth will want to embrace R A G E for Raishan's involvement with Thordak destroying Pyrah.

Once they get to Marquet, Scanlan has the opportunity to reunite with Kaylie (since she and the troupe mentioned going there after Westrunn) and kick his character arc into overdrive. Scanlan will make his promise to Kaylie that he'll survive the crisis, and we'll probably get some J'mon Sa Ord and the Sandkehgs Hide scene.

Glintshore, the Anna Ripley fight, and Percy's death will happen in E3. This is simply because episode three has been chock full of depressing character moments for both S1 and S2 - so why shouldn't it also be the case for S3? It will also serve as a catalyst for Vex and Percy's official romance and potentially spook Keyleth and Vax into theirs as well. Scanlan will probably have a moment too, as he realises just how dangerous this quest will be. By the end of this batch, we'll have two (?) more vestiges with Whisper and Cabal's Ruin added to the roster.

Episodes 4-6 (Vorugal / Yenk / The Mansion)

The party will probably make a quick pit-stop in Whitestone where they'll find out the Conclave has expanded its efforts beyond Tal'Dorei, as Vorugal has demolished Draconia in Wildemount. Raishan will convince VM to go to Draconia with her to dispatch Vorugal. We might get more Exandrian lore to set up Wildemount for the M9 series as VM preps for the battle.

Scanlan received a key in the S2 finale that will likely come into play in E5 as either the key to his Magnificent Mansion or the Gate spell (both are iconic parts of the Vorugal plan). I'm leaning more towards the key belonging to the Mansion since they can rewrite the story to have Raishan cast Gate as a nod to how she freed Thordak. They'll summon Yenk so they can not only kill another dragon but also retrieve Keyleth's vestige. We'll get a really badass fight scene and character moments for a number of characters.

Considering how jam-packed the season will have been at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if E6 ends up being a cool-down 'filler' episode with character moments like Kima getting the Holy Avenger, the canon ball contest, and Percy and Vex's kiss in the woods.

Episodes 7-9 (Fire Plane / Earth Ashari (?) / Retaking Emon)

On the hunt for more vestiges, VM will probably head to the Fire Plane to recover the Plate of the Dawnmartyr with a cameo from Senokir. Still, aside from that, I don't know what the episode would consist of.

I also think this batch of episodes is a perfect place to slot in Keyleth's Earth Ashari trial, since it took place pre-stream and TLOVM seems to be hinting that Pyrah was her first trial. It would be really interesting to see how Keyleth's vision of her own death will be adapted considering how far into the Chroma Conclave arc it takes place. The trial would also give VM a chance to gather more forces for the coming battle.

Now, if the episode titles actually ended up spelling A BARD'S LAMENT, I would have absolutely named S3E9 'March to Emon'. This is where we get an Avengers Endgame-type moment of unity where all of VM's allies and the armies gather to take Emon back from Thordak. I'm thinking of appearances from Syngorn, the Ashari, Whitestone, maybe even J'mon Sa Ord sending some support their way.

Episodes 10-12 (Thordak / Raishan / Scanlan & Taryon (?))

We're in the final batch of episodes, and I feel like these are the simplest to lay out. It'll be boss battle after boss battle; the only question is how long each battle will take. Thordak will likely be kept to just E10, so that the show has ample time to handle the Raishan fight (since I tend to think of Raishan as the penultimate enemy from the Conclave).

Thordak dies, and in E11, the party battles Raishan in a brutal fight that does NOT kill Percy in the adaptation. I think him dying again would cheapen his death earlier in the season and take away from Scanlan's death in the same encounter. I really hope we get Travis breaking our hearts with "FIX HIM!" too. Now, I'd say the episode ends with VM taking Scanlan's body back to Whitestone.

In the season finale, Kaylie comes to Whitestone, and the party resurrects Scanlan. I think it'd be a unique change to the story (but not necessarily an unwelcome one) if VM was willing to just bury Scanlan, but Kaylie was the one who convinced them to try and bring him back. We get the absolutely gut-wrenching speech and his departure. The thing I'm wondering is whether TLOVM will simply end with Scanlan leaving and save Taryon's debut to S4, or if they'll introduce him in the final scene and leave us on a cliffhanger. My assumption is that the latter is the case since it's a very them thing to do.

With all that being said, I hope what I've written makes sense. It's been in my drafts for a good 6 months while I tried to piece together my theories, and I haven't exactly proofread it. Obviously, any number of things could end up being different, but this is just my take. I'd love to hear people's thoughts and theories that they've come up with themselves too!

[zemnian-newcomer]

Masterpost

Chronicling what I have and haven't watched so far, partly to keep track of things myself and partly to do my best to curb spoilers (not that I'm that great at avoiding them myself). Will update as I go along.

Watched:

All of Campaign 1

VM-related One-Shots: Grog's One-Shot, The Search For Grog, The Search For Bob, Dalen's Closet, The Adventures Of The Darlington Brigade

All of Campaign 2

MN-related One-Shots: The Mighty Nein Reunited (Parts 1&2), Echoes Of The Solstice

Most Battle Royales up to VM vs M9 (don't care much about spoilers on those I haven't watched though)

Other One-Shots: Liam's Quest, The Return of Liam, Liam's Quest: Full Circle, Thursday by Night 1 & 2, The Song of the Lorelei, Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Crystal Palace, Cinderbrush: A Monsterhearts Story, Night Before Critmas

Exandria Unlimited: Calamity

The Legend Of Vox Machina

Exandria Unlimited

Exandria Unlimited: Kymal

Candela Obscura Chapter 1 - 4 & the live show

Honey Heist 1

A Familiar Problem

All of Narrative Telephone

Midst

Moonward

Watching:

Campaign 3

I usually watch new episodes on Friday or Saturday, depending on what time I have. No spoilers earlier than that please, but once you see me posting about it, feel free to jump in.

I tag new episodes with #cr spoilers for a week after the initial broadcast and #c3eXX with specific episode numbers for longer than that. Older stuff is tagged with the campaign’s party name/the party the character(s) in the post belongs to, which overlap sometimes.

[hiyaluronic]

the need to watch the M9 reunited episode is strong but I want to wait till both parts are out because knowing Matt part 1 ends in a friggen cliffhanger. 🫠🫠

[wanderingspacepirate]

I posted 7,081 times in 2022

That's 691 more posts than 2021!

76 posts created (1%)

7,005 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@tiefling-queer

@questbedhead

@hairasuntouchedaspartoftheamazon

@flightyfox

@zukkas

I tagged 3,936 of my posts in 2022

Only 44% of my posts had no tags

#cr - 923 posts

#cr3 - 428 posts

#art - 401 posts

#cr spoilers - 356 posts

#video - 257 posts

#cr2 - 252 posts

#m9 reunited - 161 posts

#save - 142 posts

#atla - 126 posts

#comic - 118 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i try rlly hard to remember to comment even if it’s something simple like ‘thank you for writing! <3’ or ‘thank you for creating this story!

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

“you solve the mystery of who your children were”

10 notes - Posted June 16, 2022

#4

rewatching Elementary (TV) and like! in awe of the messages they send about morality! obviously the show has copaganda, and a major aspect of the show is “breaking the law here means we get the right guy in prison” which is… *gestures* not the greatest thing to say. but what is also present is Holmes’ and Watson’s morality and insistence on doing good, while also acknowledging that the world is not black and white but also shades of gray. S2E10 has a short clip about this topic at around 26 minutes in. Part of S2E10 mentions that it is good that a mentally ill person is not wrongly imprisoned even after he has been framed in a way that really makes him look guilty. there is also discussion of addiction and obsession in Elementary, and neither is demonized! the misogyny in Elementary is very much present, and there’s not really anything to excuse it - but i do enjoy this show quite a lot, and being able to rewatch it and think about police and the institution of police more critically means i get more out of the show, i think.

this isn’t a coherent post at all. but being able to watch this show again with the knowledge i have now is super interesting. also Elementary as a TV show is LEAGUES BETTER than Sherlock.

15 notes - Posted September 20, 2022

#3

stealing from each other is their love language

16 notes - Posted July 7, 2022

#2

thought about the protector of the small and beka cooper series and was like. maybe i’ll read fic this time bc i have reread both those series a lot? but then was like. no actually i like the canon stuff too much.

26 notes - Posted October 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

talked to someone cosplaying as Jonny D’Ville at QueerCon today and i am SO HAPPY and FULL OF JOY that i met a fellow mechanisms fan irl today

113 notes - Posted April 30, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[the-caleb-widogast]

I posted 587 times in 2022

That's 372 more posts than 2021!

54 posts created (9%)

533 posts reblogged (91%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@llysaan

@neinofthem

@casukaga

@eyezpike

@viciousmollymaukery

I tagged 281 of my posts in 2022

#critical role - 36 posts

#cr spoilers - 34 posts

#the mighty nein - 23 posts

#essek thelyss - 20 posts

#mighty nein - 17 posts

#caleb widogast - 14 posts

#the mighty nein reunited - 11 posts

#shadowgast - 8 posts

#beauregard lionett - 6 posts

#jester lavorre - 5 posts

Longest Tag: 118 characters

#i nearly encircled the i wish they didnt exit square bc of the shit he did to the nein but ugh the aeor arc is so good

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

i just imagine whenever imogen rolls low for looking through the library for information it's not because it's her fault but rather because there's two humans, one with ginger hair and one with dark brown hair, who are also furiously researching and she can't find what she's looking for becuase they might have it.

"caleb. caleb, look at this. more shit about the fucking moons that apparently need to be dealt with. add this to the list of books we're paying to make a copy off and be shipped to the soul."

"alright. you know we wouldn't have need to come here had we paid more attention to your fellow archive member who was very interested in the moons as well."

"well when he was talking about it it sounded so fucking boring and we were dealing with a lot of shit that we couldn't really have given him any time anyways. and now he's mia and now we have to try and find him or his stupid research."

"yah that is unfortunate. has jester responded back if any of her sendings had reached mr sunlash?"

"nah she's been sending to him at least once a day but no response. some of jester's message are pretty fucking creepy though so i'd get why he might not respond. hey do you think if just we hit up the moonweaver she'll give us the answer?"

"considering we were part of the attempt of trying to pass off artagan's cult to her, i don't presume she'll respond kindly to us. and you forget neither of us are godly people beauregard"

"that's fair. do you think if jester spoke with artagan she might get him to tell her.

"..."

"yeah cad would probably have more luck with the wildmother. anyways add this to the list and i'll go look for more books."

"sure. can we add this too? i've skimmed it but it speaks about a type of magic that is unknown to wildemount and we might benefit from learning more about it."

"sure yeah. add it to the list. i love having fucking magic shit that the cerberus doesn't know about and we can lord it over them."

270 notes - Posted August 11, 2022

#4

IT’S TIME TO UNEARTH THE ANCIENT RITUALS

See the full post

458 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

#3

HOT BOI SPOTTED AT LONG LAST

523 notes - Posted December 2, 2022

#2

hehehe saw the opportunity to involve my blorbos and took it

564 notes - Posted September 27, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

m9 short comic or oneshot where’s it’s just beau and caleb trying to find out what happened last night after it was announced that king dwendal kicked it

844 notes - Posted September 23, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[railroad-migraine]

Despite drowning in work and assessments, I have watched M9 Reunited part 1 and it was delicuous

I will watch part 2 asap

[your-enby-antihero]

AHHH YASHA WITH THE BOBCUT SHE LOOKS FRESH AS FUCK I AM CRY 🥰🥰🥰🥰

[sparring-spirals]

I feel like its a lovely snapshot of Beau to have her, presumably buck naked, and previously.... preoccupied, immediately lose all grouchiness from being interrupted at the prospect of getting everyone together again. Even if its for a world ending event. Even if two minutes ago she was irritated at being interrupted. Full demeanor 180, flowed immediately by her inviting Caleb over for dinner.

[shadowgastrights]

For drunk AMA, do you think we’ll ever get Essek combat, I wanna see him use those cool dunamancy spells. Also thoughts on how he might be reunited with the M9? Manifesting drow energy for 2021!

We absolutley BETTER get combat!essek. No lie there’s little I want to see so badly as that. The scene with the scourger haunts me for what we could eventually see in battle,,, Dunamancy is SO FUCKKING SEXY and I need to see our resident dunamancer in his prime. 2021 is gonna be the year of 1. WAIZARDS 2. DUNAMIS, which equals 3. COMBAT ESSEK.

I got so excited over the first part of the question that I honestly almost missed the rest lmao

I’m wondering if they will try to set up some kind of sting involving essek? As one post pointed out, that I’m not gonna try to find right now, essek is like the M9′s one ace up their sleeve rn against lucien. If they can message with essek in the tower without the bastard around, maybe they can plan something? Either way Essek’s got to be getting worried soon if the M9 don’t show up and don’t contact him and I really want to see it play out where he (or an associate) messages them and how tf they can respond without alerting Lucien. ALSO what if Essek spies on them and Lucien sees??

I feel like I'm not answer your questions at all, I’m sorry lol. I am, infact, mildly intoxicated, so that is my excuse. 

Happy New Year, and may 2021 bring us many gently floating male drow ✨ light be with you

[your-enby-antihero]

Empire Sibs having a sending stone 🥹 and Caleb teaching kids who didn’t get in he is a good egg y’all a good good egg

[your-enby-antihero]

Beau and Yasha have a fucking cottagecore home with personal spaces, they are fucking domestic, and Martina Steward we love her and her potential crimes :)

[your-enby-antihero]

Caleb out here just like “you fuckers in this academy are bad at teaching these kids I’ll teach them better” and I love him for it :)

[your-enby-antihero]

Ahhhh we love an adventure couple that slips waves in half, that’s hot. Watch this be Uk’otoa because it’s a bitter ex that won’t understand that Fjord broke the bond and found a new patron.