#mighty nein as family

[shorthaltsjester]

the reason critical role is so good is because every campaign features at least one cast member creating a character that they intend to be doomed by the narrative and matt and the rest of the cast going don’t be an idiot, Our Love Will Undoom Them. like in the explanation of percy’s final playlist, taliesin wrote, “Cheers to a happy ending for a character intended by his creator to be karmically irredeemable. May we all be so fortunate.” and just, Yeah.

[revvethasmythh]

Thinking about Caleb “I-use-people’s-full-names-to-show-intimacy” Widogast and the way he calls Veth “Veth the Brave.” It’s not all the time—it’s rarely used, actually, saved for specific moments, only when he’s using the fondest of tones, with the most admiration, and how calling her that is more intimate than just “Veth Brenatto.” Because Veth the Brave is both of her identities. It’s Nott and it’s Veth, it’s their co-mingling, it’s her in her entirety. Veth the Brave. That’s why it’s so intimate, because he is speaking to all of who she is

[quasieli]

[Image description: Eight pages from the comic Mighty Nein Origins: Caduceus Clay. The first six pages feature a young Caduceus and his mother, Constance, while the last two pages show an older Caduceus, as well as his father, Cornelius, and sister, Clarabelle.

Page 1: A wide shot of the Blooming Grove, with a beautiful stone and wood temple sat at the center of a verdant cemetery. From afar, Constance calls outs "Caduceus!"

Page 2: Constance is stood behind her son, with his head only partially in frame. The first panel shows her saying, "There you are, didn't you hear me calling?" In the second panel, she is leaning down to her son, a concerned look on her face as she says "Oh."

Page 3: A smaller panel shows Caduceus cupping a dead bird in his hands, holding it tenderly. The wider panel then shows his mother sitting down beside him, the pair sat next to a head stone. He leans his head into her shoulder as she asks, "Would you like some help?" The pair then proceed ro bury the bird.

Page 4: Constance and Caduceus are kneeling in the dirt, over the bird's burial spot. Constance asks, "Ready?, with Caduceus responding "Mh-hmm." The pair touch the ground where the bird was buried, and soon a bright orange flower magically blooms from the spot, causing Caduceus to startle.

Page 5: Constance sits beside her son, her hand gentle touching his face as she says, "Death and decay are a part of a circle, a wheel turning without a beginning or end. Death is how we nurture life, Caduceus." He looks down at the flower as he asks, "Then how comes it hurts?" Caduceus lays down in his mother's arms as she explains, "Because you loved them." A smaller panel shows a closer shot of their faces as she asks, "Do you regret that love?"

Page 6: A small panel shows a closeup shot of Caduceus, looking sad as he replies "No." Another wide shot of the Grove is shown, with the pair sat at the center, Constance continuing, "Part of love is knowing they will go, and cherishing them with your whole heart in the face of that hurt." Another small panel shows a closeup of the newly bloomed flower, with some of its loose petal blowing into the wind.

Page 7: An interior shot, a number of years in the future, showing an adult Caduceus asleep in his flower filled bedroom. He wakes upon hearing the voices of his father and sister, who are in another room, getting up to go investigate. His sister says "I just don't think it's fair that --", Cornelius interjects, "Clarabelle, please keep your voice down."

Page 8: Caduceus comes down the stairs tiredly rubbing his eyes while his father and sister continue to argue. Clarabelle says, "I will not until you--", cutting herself off as she sees her brother appear. Cornelius moves to ready some gear as Caduceus asks "You're leaving?" He responds "The corruption isn't going away on its own. Maybe... maybe your mother found something out there. I'll find her and your aunt, and find a cure." Clarabelle steps forward, declaring "It should be my turn! I'm old enough and faster than you, anyway!" To which Cornelius responds, as he begins to depart, "Clarabelle Clay, mind yourself. Stay home with your brother." End description.]

Sneak preview of Caduceus's origin comic from Polygon!

Generations of the Clay family have tended to the careful rituals in the Blooming Grove. But when corruption begins to creep in on their sacred space, the Clays depart one by one to seek answers. Soon young Caduceus and Clarabelle are the only ones left, and when a dangerous burial quest falls to Caduceus, he must leave the Grove to do the family’s work.

[frogenthusiastt]

when i get my hands on Liam O'Brien i'm making him pay all my therapy bills

like. LIKE. look at his face. the sudden surprise as jester invades his space and proceeds to RUTHLESSLY unravel and acknowledge his pain after the traumatic events of the day, the way he's so carefully tucked away all emotions and tried to move on without worrying the group. look how quickly the layers all crumble away, how emotional and vulnerable and small he looks, how for a second we see Caleb Widogast without all his layers. if i had any power at all to do so i would give this man a thousand oscars and then ask for a milion dollars to compensate for the emotional damage he has wrought me

[annemarieyeretzian]

bell’s hells hearing the mighty nein arrive and chetney shouting “oh! oh shit! I think they’re here!” and braius shouting “quick, clean up! make it look like we’re cool.” and fearne saying “yeah!” and laudna asking “should we walk out and greet them? …we need levels, right?” and dorian saying “like a tableau.” and everyone except orym getting into position,,, dorian laying seductively on his side,,, fearne leaning against a pillar,,, imogen floating,,, laudna laying flat,,, braius in the doorframe showing off his arm muscles,,, ashton sitting coolly on the rail,,, and then orym, standing in the center of the porch, saying “hey. I don’t know what they’re – we’re the people you’re looking for. hi.” (bonus: imogen, fearne, and dorian whining “orym!”) 😂

[its-your-mind]

Actually, I don't think we've done a full introduction of your friends here, if you want to… - c2e96

[found-family-tournament]

Found Family Tournament Round 2 Part 7 Group 31

Propaganda and further images under the cut

Archive Staff: Jonathan Sims, Sasha James, Tim Stoker, Martin Blackwood

Mighty Nein: Caleb Widogast, Nott the Brave/Veth Brennato, Fjord, Jester Lavorre, Caduceus Clay, Beauregard Lionett, Yasha Nydoorin, Mollymauk Tealeaf/Kingsley Tealeaf, Essek Thelyss

Archive Staff:

They’re trying their best to understand

Mighty Nein:

Originally, they were only seven, and the Nein part of their group name was a running joke about rolling nines and Caleb's German accent. Then, after Molly's untimely death, the group picked up Caduceus, making seven again. Later, they ally with Essek, who makes eight. And finally, through the power of love and found family, they defeat a villain named Lucien (who inhabits the body Molly had, it's all very complicated), and revive the body to become Kingsley Tealeaf, who looks at Molly as his brother but ultimately makes the group Nine. His revival is literally an act of divine intervention, fueled by the love and loss they all felt after chasing their beloved friend across the continent.

Internally there are other fantastic family bonds. Caleb and Nott/Veth having an incredible bond, Caleb and Beau being the Empire siblings, Molly and Yasha being the circus kids, Beau and Fjord, Cad and Fjord, the chaos crew, Nott and Jester, it goes on and on. They all change each other so significantly, they grow together, and canonically even though they live apart, they all have regular meetups in the tower Caleb created for all of them, with a stained glass window in Molly's honor and rooms dedicated to each member of the group. Even now in the new campaign, they've had cameos that prove years later they still work together and have each other's backs.

This is THEE definition of found family, these assholes were thrown together through circumstance and mostly hated each other to begin with right up until three of their own were kidnapped and then it was ON. And when Molly died, they took his ideals and turned them into a legacy SO POWERFUL they took Essek from a cold, self motivated war criminal to a man willing to die for his friends. They refused to let Beau face her abusive family alone! They helped Yasha heal from her trauma! They took down the whole Cerberus Assembly for what they did to Caleb! They saved the whole dang world together WITH THE POWER OF FUCKING FRIENDSHIP 😭! THEY LOVED MOLLY SO MUCH THAT IT SAVED THE WORLD! THEY NAMED THEMSELVES AFTER A STUPID PUN AND THEN THERE REALLY ENDED UP BEING NINE OF THEM! I WOULD DIE FOR THEM!!!

official art by Ari Orner, fan art by exmakina and tobyjamessharp

[mourn-and-watch]

the gentleman & jester relationship is so funny to me especially in retrospective. i love gentleman embracing his new-found Crime Boss Dad role but when he met jester he was explicitly the Crime Boss without the Dad part and my guy unknowingly sent his own daughter to places nobody should ever go without a gun and mighty nein didn't get one until hupperdook and it didn't help much anyway.

so back to the point. do you think he ever reflects on the days when mighty nein were working for him but now thinking of jester as his daughter and not some random weird girl. does he ever wake up in sweat colder than usual remembering that one time when mighty nein did that ophelia job and he started to make out with her in front of his daughter dreaming of reuniting her mom and long lost dad and to make it even more embarrassing it turned out they lost their buddy so he shrugged and tossed his kiddo some extra money so she can go buy herself ice cream to feel better or something

[aeoris4lovers]

the quiet tragedy of verin being the one who never quite made it out.

for most of their lives, essek was the one who was entrenched in expectations, in the politics of their den. while verin was stationed far from the heart of the dynasty, ostensibly free from the eyes of his elders, essek was sitting beside their mother in court and speaking before the queen. and it made sense, because essek had always been better at all of it — the posturing, the sweet-talking, the ladder-climbing. his brother the black sleep was still his brother the prodigy; his brother the heretic was still his brother the shadowhand.

but then, essek meets new people and they get through to him and change him and make him softer, make him better (and why them? what is it about them, that they could do what verin never could?) and he runs. he gives up the title and the status and the power and leaves it all (leaves verin) behind.

suddenly, verin is the lone newsoul of den thelyss, the one with all eyes on him, with the expectations meant for two brothers falling squarely on his shoulders and only his in the absence of their other target. he is still the youngest of his den, the one they all watch and wait to be disappointed by, but there is no one to share that burden with anymore and all at once it becomes painfully clear that distance never really was freedom.

essek has a family, then — not a den but a family, with love and trust and care and warmth and all the things essek once called verin childish for craving — and a welcoming home to go to with someone who loves him waiting there and a garden in the front yard, and verin is left still fighting demons under the banner of a god (of a family, of a home) he only half-believes in.

and maybe they see each other more often then. maybe bazzoxan is remote enough that it’s safe for essek to visit in disguise. maybe essek’s friends come too and are kind enough to offer a taste of what essek has now and verin can almost believe it’s his too. maybe essek doesn’t even fight it anymore when verin insists on hugging him. but how much can that really fix? how much can it really change?

an unloved man leaves no one behind when he finally makes a better life for himself, but essek was never an unloved man. not really.

[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.

[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"

[forgetriestowrite]

A while ago I saw someone comparing Critical Role's Vox Machina to the Avengers and the Mighty Nein to the Guardians of the Galaxy and after rewatching GOTG 3 last night I have now fully realized how true that is

[isa-grapes]

essek’s arc to me

[critcallyobsessed]

ESSEK IS WORKING FOR THE SOUL?!? Oh my fucking god I have wanted that since the finally ep of c2.

Are you telling me that Beauregard Lionnett has become friends with Essek? Like maybe not BFFs but like she no longer hates him???

Caleb is finally getting his big happy family?!? Next Kingsley is just gonna show up and profess their undying love as a side effect of Molly.

[thesapphiresoul]

MIGHTY NEIN I LOVE YOUUUUUU