#mighty nein angst

[stardustedknuckles]

Jester said the three of them were tied and gagged in the cart and heard the fight with Lorenzo and that means there's a very real chance we'll get a shot of their faces at the sound of the fight outside and Molly's death and I just don't know if I'm strong enough for that but boy I'm ready to find out.

[salix-alba04]

completely forgot to post this on here :))

The Carnival Duo <3

[moondrops-and-ink]

Oops another episode where we don’t know about Caleb and Beau being MIA hahahah I’m FINE

Anyways imagining Caleb being in a bad place mentally with the mage collar and a sweet shadowgast moment of Essek being the one to crack it and get it off, worried af about his low key husband but just relieved to know he’s alive and has his magic again.

[randomfangirl330]

"Fuck you! My child is completely fine!"

"Have you SEEN your child's top AO3 bookmark tag?!?!?!?!"

[non-binary-smurf-nerd]

Things are a lot rn so I haven't been blogging here let alone on main but just now watching C2E97 Essek confess to TM9 and saying "What I didn't count on was..." and in that pause there's a glance at Caleb and oh my hecking feck I *need* that animated. Even if he does carry on with "...liking you all." Don't care. Nearly came out with it right there. So close.

I do also appreciate the way Matt accepted Essek's fate but stalled a bit by covering the Beau and Fjord loose a Dragonborn bit first so he could work on what to say. So many poor rolls on his part lead to Essek giving in. Ty for listening to the dice Matt 🥰

[revvethasmythh]

dockside diplomacy is a great episode because it's peak mighty nein clusterfuck combat that went so downhill so fast, yes, but also because the events of the ep cause the nein spend half of the next episode angsting about the bad choices they made and their criminal actions and having existential crises, only to immediately find out upon re-docking at nicodranas that the people they killed were known criminals with bounties on their heads and they're like. fine, actually, with the law. captain jawgrasp was killed by some "do-gooders" even lol

[kmackatie]

one day I’ll write the shadowgast fic about the complexity and beauty of grief that has been floating around in my head for the last two years

[a-still-small-vox]

Does anyone know if the Widomauk discord server still exists? I kinda doubt it, but I've got a 12K fix it I'd dearly love to have beta'd by SOMEBODY. Or just a general critrole discord server where I can avoid spoilers and get someone to look at this thing.

[tigerclaw177]

I think as a major fan of fjorester, I need jealousy pre-relationship stuff. Like give me that insecurity and frustration that someone else is looking at them that way.

Someone mentions how in love everyone is with Jester, yes Fjord get jealous

A person hits on fjord and he’s too oblivious to notice or is too nervous, yes Jester get jealous

But like because of they’re feelings and how much they care about each other, they keep it in

But they can’t help their jealous reactions and become more protective.🤭🤭

[lavendertheys]

Length: 9,685 words (5/8) Rating: T for language TWs: panic attack, emotional shutdown

Imogen’s never laid it all out like this for anyone, not even for Laudna, and she squeezes the back of her neck as she processes her own explanation.

“That sounds extremely stressful,” Yasha says, calm and gentle and full of empathy.

Imogen can feel herself about to shrug but contains the motion, and instead thinks about the last few weeks, the last several years. “Yeah,” she admits, almost to herself. “Yeah, it is.”

.

Welcome to THE GREAT BYRODEN BAKE OFF 🧁

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Production Delay

Episode 4

[ruidusgays]

NOT YASHA HITTING BEAU WHILE CHARMED AAAAAA NOT AGAIN AAAAA

[noxspost]

Something heart breaking I think

We know that Lucien, molly and Kingsley all one had the body of Lucien at one point but I looking through Lucien’s back story and it had that his brother had died and their parents went to a witch to bring back their cash cow son but it turned him into a Marionette doll really and his smile was slowly turning creepy and wrong same with his voice and Elric's body wasn't save from Decomposing so his siblings watched their brother decomposing infornt of them. That is traumatizing for childern who already getting hurt because of their money hungry parents.

So Lucien has a fear of puppets and dolls so what if molly and Kingsley also had it but don't know where it is from.

Mighty Nein for sure don't know so now Kingsley is dealing with the fear of the puppets.

*Also there is the link to the wiki where I found this out

[non-binary-smurf-nerd]

I can't get this angst out of my head so now you all get it.

Why was Caleb not wearing that red neck tie? It was a gift from Essek, and the last they spoke before Caleb left for the key they had an argument because Essek probably mentioned that Ludinus had his respect for being able to keep his plans hidden for so long and Caleb left in huff, leaving the tie by accident. Essek hid the scarf in his pocket as a gift and Caleb wore it feeling guilty about not making up before leaving. Now Essek can't get in touch with him or *anyone* at all and is worried sick holding on to the red fabric hoping everyone is ok.

I just hope this isn't true and that Essek has scry, and knows what's happening/Caleb is actually alive. With BH falling apart I *need* TM9 to be ok.

[demigoddessqueens]

Hello! If possible do you think you could do headcanons or a short fic of Caleb from Mightey Nein having a s/o with a similar past? But for some reason is more on the upbeat and outgoing side as a way to cope?

🥹 Aww Caleb 🥺 ❤️‍🔥💔

Pairing/AN/Tags: Caleb x y/n, fluff and angst, slight mentions of the torture from Trent

He always noticed how you had one covered and the scars on the other were connected by intricate designs. Flowers and runes that would make Mollymauk jealous from the sight of them.

Despite the stories you and he both had, you were different. In the most honest way Caleb could comprehend, how were you two so different? The jests, antics and laughter rang like music in his ears. It was nothing short of the joy and envy he felt towards you.

How could it be one such as yourself face this world, shaped by the injustices you both faced, with such optimism? It hurt. It ran through his mind, or was it just you and that bright smile? And it ached when you reassured him, even going well into the late hours of the night by the fire.

It was then Caleb learned as to why one arm was covered. An act of defiance against Trent; on that same day your soul was never crushed but Caleb felt as if he lost himself.

“Why do you do it? How..?”, he choked out past the nerves.

“He doesn’t own me, Caleb. He never did. My joy is my power, and he can never take that from me. Or you.”

[windor-truffle]

many thoughts head full they're only tangentially graces related but idk where else to vent:

I feel like I should have/did already know this about myself but holy shit I (and many others) am an absolute slut for the redemption-style ship trope, the ol' "I know you and I love you and that's why I can't let you deviate into this darker place I'm stopping you I'm saving you I'm helping you I'm bringing you back." and now I'm gonna ramble abt it because aaaaaaaaaa

I swear I've loved this trope for a while now but I think analyzing graces in part heightened my awareness of it until it hit a breaking point (w an ace attorney video of all things) and I realized that *all* of my favorite ships are this way 😅 Richard and Asbel fit it of course they're like the prototype of the simplest yet effective way to enact this: a pure-hearted protagonist who believes in his friends until the end but is willing to stand against them vs the love interest coerced (and in this case also outright possessed) into very obviously morally wrong actions by the exacerbation of a flaw but ultimately saved when they can put aside their pain and embrace the help that comes with companionship and makes that pain bearable. Paragons that cling on to hope even if it makes them seem naive or causes them to get hurt sometimes along the way are SO sexy and when that hope is rewarded with what they wanted, the redemption of someone who others thought to be beyond salvation, I the audience am also bursting into tears I don't care if it's cliche it's SO GOOD 😭

You know which other popular ship does this? Not hard to figure out I already mentioned Ace Attorney but yeah Phoenix Wright changed his whole career just because he heard that the hero who once stood up for him when no one else would was now a ruthless prosecutor and he had to find the truth of what had happened to his beloved childhood friend Miles Edgeworth (I've made the Richass comparison before and there's even an AA AU fic for graces but I haven't read it yet 😔). The AA fandom eats this gay ship up but how can you not 💜 Edgeworth being stopped in his tracks by this incessant bluffing optimistic man who stood fast against his selfishness (paraphrasing something Edgeworth literally says in JFA 😅) until he starts to question himself (because of some "unnecessary feelings") and eventually actually believes in himself after years of feeling guilt over a crime he thought he committed and shame of letting down the beliefs his supposed victim instilled him (the same beliefs that Phoenix is determined to bring out in him again) and ultimately leaves to figure out what his goal as a prosecutor really is then returns for my all-time favorite case Farewell and Turnabout and now it's Edgeworth's turn to say "I've learned what I stand for and the lengths to which I'd go to maintain it because you set me on this journey, now it seems it's your turn to walk this same path of doubt and discovery but don't worry I'll be right beside you, I'll walk it with you so you don't have fear going as far astray as I once did." Like. ;_;

But holdup I'm not done naming ships 'cause Fluri also does this to an extent. Yuri has to call out Flynn when it becomes apparent his blind trust in his mentor has made him complacent in the very crimes he sought to fix from within, and Flynn retorts by condemning the methods that Yuri has resorted to, the "dirtying of his hands," though I'd argue though that Yuri's double homicide is actually not a deviation from his morality but rather an extreme fulfillment of it. But it's still delightful though the way they have to pull each other back from the pitfalls of their own brands of justice, ie. entrusting too much power in fallable governments vs. appointing yourself the power to decide who gets to live or die. And like the previously mentioned ship, this pair works the best when they combine their different approaches (everything about how they infiltrate Ragou's manor is brilliant) because that way they can keep each other in check. It's almost like finding the balance in enacting justice is the theme of these games or something 😅

Last ship I wanna mention isn't even in canon but I can't resist the opportunity to plug my own (unfinished 😓) sormik fic "Falling Awake" because this is DEFINITELY what I was going for, a Mikleo threading the line of morality out of both despair and desperation to see their dream fulfilled even if the cost is steep, and a Sorey who struggles to reconcile whether this fallen seraph before him really is his friend or whether he can even be saved. A Mikleo who places the decision of whether to cross that line fully in Sorey's hands, trusting him to make the right call even as he begs him to let him do this, and a Sorey who can't let down the dreams of their past by allowing this particular tainted method to be its fulfillment. Everytime I work on it I start weeping even though I'm the one who wrote it 😅

Before I wrap this up though I wanna shoutout some variations of this trope, because it can obviously go a lot of different ways. I know V's rather fond of the more twisted love version in which instead of trying to bring their loved one back from the brink they jump off together, a la Kresnik Bros Bad End Best End 😁 In some ways I almost think this trope is "purer" because rather than trying to restore their beloved to what they think they should be (morally good) they embrace them as they are (amoral but kinda sexy bc of it 😂). True love lets the world burn 💜

Also worth mentioning is the delicious variation wherein the fallen party really was bad from the start, such as being a mole for an evil group, but caught feelings along the way and started wanting to be the kind of person the other seemed to think they already were. Dramatic irony is my fave and there's so much angst you can tease as the character evolves from "haha I'm deceiving them can't wait to betray them" to "shit I'm actually so much happier here with them but our relationship is built on a lie and when it comes out that I am a villain I will be undone and have nowhere to turn except from whence I came but I no longer want to be there." I feel like there's a lot of instances of this trope but the one that came to my mind first was Shadowhand Essek from Critical Role, there's the excellent Shadowgast ship of course but I like that he has this dynamic with the whole party who have been nothing but kind to him and inspire him to want a better life despite what he's done and what he's still trapped in.

Anyway, if anyone read this far first of all thank you 💜💜💜 I really have just been stuck in fandom ramble analysis mode for the past few days it's kinda insufferable but at least tumblr blogs are a good outlet for it 😅 And secondly uhhh if any of my impassioned ship/trope descriptions remind you of a particular media/ship lmk (I feel like Soriku might fit this but I never got that far into the series). I can't say I'll get to anything right away but if it's got this kinda vibe that's like catnip to me I'll happily stash the recommendation away for a future obsession someday 😅