#mighty nein wrap up

[wackachewbacca]

Episode two and Beau is trying to disguise herself as a man and she goes up to Fjord asking how to act like a manly man like girl you don’t know it but this man does not know how to be accepting of his own masculinity you picked arguably the worst and funniest person for this

[antomander]

I would give my dogs, my house, my life to see the texts between Ashley and Marisha after C2 about Yasha and Beau’s future.

[polycraftory]

Another belt bag for Nott completed! This one is going to be used to hide a phone while my wife is cosplaying as Nott, and I'm really satisfied with the way it matches the little button pouch I made. She is going to have so so many things on her belts lmao

This was definitely my most complex leatherworking project yet! You can check out our pinned post for a link to my Critical Role leatherworking masterpost if you are interested in the other projects I'm doing for Imogen, Laudna, and Nott. I'm also considering making some "how to" leatherworking for cosplay guides so please let me know if there is anything that you'd find useful!

Some additional process notes:

This bag is made with a 2-3 oz vintage bomber chrome tanned leather and an 8-9 oz vegtan bridle leather. Ideally, I would have used a 5-6 oz leather for the structural part but I needed the heavier leather for belts and couldn't afford to get yet another hide. This totally worked though!

I really like how the internal seams turned out on the thinner leather section but man was it tricky to actually figure out how to hold and do properly.

I added a secondary pocket to the original design by cutting out a second front section and I am so glad that worked out and is functional. It'll be the perfect little pocket for artist alley stickers!

If I wasn't doing this project for cosplay, I might have dyed the edges before burnishing them but I think the lighter edges lend it a more worn in feel and my wife liked it better this way and whatever she wants she can have.

I cannot even begin to explain how much I recommend getting a little disc of grippy material if you are going to sew thick leather together. They are apparently called "Needle Pullers" and they make my little fingers not want to die and make getting the needle through thicker leather SO much easier. I buy the dritz ones, I think they are made of silicon or something???

[cloudy-moth]

Hey hey what do we do if in the mighty nein reunion yasha and beau have adopted a kid hey

[thequeenofmyownscreen]

what to do now

[magpiex-reads]

June reading wrap up✨️

I read 6 books during June!

Love & other scams: 4.5☆ - a fun British contemporary romance with a heist plot line.

The Mighty Nein origins: Mollymauk tealeaf: 5☆ - pre campaign stories about Mollymauk (would recommend to fans of C2)

One for my enemy: 2☆ - a 'enemies to lovers' Romeo and Juliet retelling (after the atlas six I have now learnt that her writing style isn't for me)

Sleep alone: 5☆ - a sapphic short horror novel revolving around Succubi. (CW: body horror)

Caraval: 4☆ - a magical game filled with wonder, lies and betrayal with the possibilities of winning wishes and riches. (A very fun and intriguing concept!)

The ballad of never after: 4.5☆ - sequel to once upon a broken heart, a series linked to the caraval series. (Very fast paced with lots of twists and turns)

Currently reading:

Legendary by Stephanie Garber

The gilded cage by Lynette Noni

20,000 leagues under the sea by Jules Verne

The thread that binds by Cedar McCloud

Dracula by Bram Stoker (via Dracula daily)

The house in the cerulean sea by TJ Klune

Once and Future witches by Alix E Harrow

(I am aware I read too many books at once but I lose interest so quickly😭)

[sky-squido]

do you ever think about shadowhand essek thelyss at 1am and how the cast asked matt during the campaign 2 wrap up if he was supposed to be a major antagonist and matt said no because he was "meant to be an antagonistic force in the world" like he was never even meant to be an antagonist, just a force, because his actual personhood was so deeply unimportant from the very beginning, and that he was invented with the sole purpose of making the world a worse place and was never supposed to matter beyond the ways in which his actions harmed others and then he saved the world not because he was a good person but because the mighty nein loved him so much that they bent the narrative around him and he became a character whose personhood mattered because they decided that it mattered and it was their love and nothing else that not only changed him but made him a person that could be changed at all and more than just an antagonistic force in the world, but an antagonist, who could grow and ultimately come to love them back and—

[essektheylyss]

I love that Caleb does not ever seem to take opportunities to take any kind of "this might be the last moment I have" actions. No matter what, when everyone else is going around and making their desperate moves, Caleb doesn't. Even after he recommends otherwise to others, it is notable that he among the group doesn't do so, and this is consistent with his previous behavior.

I like to think that stems from the moment he opted against trying to work with Trent—which I think, at its core, was an attempt at such an action. If Caleb had died fighting the Somnovem, he had every reason to believe that Trent would continue in his actions. Though Astrid and Eadwulf were willing to subtly undermine him, they had made it clear that they were not willing to challenge him outright. Caleb tells the Nein, when they are discussing their last wishes at the Blooming Grove before returning to Eiselcross, that he would appreciate Trent being eliminated in the event of his death. I have to believe that there was a fear or regret that his dearest motivations would not come to fruition which spurred his interest in using an alliance with him in Aeor to trap and kill him.

I've mentioned elsewhere that I believe Essek's willingness to disagree with him was one of the factors in Caleb being able to trust him and his judgment, but I would also argue it was a wake-up call for Caleb—about letting himself be distracted; about not focusing in on the mission at hand; about, potentially, expecting failure in this goal, especially after he has watched his friends say their goodbyes as if they too expect to die. "Stay on task, Widogast," is a mantra he uses in Vergessen, but he does get caught up, to an extent, in enacting as much damage as he can to the place in the process, and regardless of whether this ruthless assault slowed or sped their discovery, Trent did catch up to them, and very nearly caught Veth and Jester as well as himself. Given Caleb's fears throughout the campaign that he will draw the danger that dogs him onto his newfound friends, and his later apology to Essek in the same conversation for drawing Trent's attention to him, it is not a stretch to argue that this is yet another guilt he shoulders.

It isn't lost on me that Caleb almost died before the Nein even met, he was perpetually aware of his fragility among the group, and he was the last member of the Nein to go down and need to be revived. So I just think it's very fun if he, who so often seemed to be on the verge of death, who in fact planned to step back in history and in the process erase the person he had become, found himself at some point determined to live, and firmly confident in his ability to do so.

He does not wrap up his affairs, he does not say goodbyes, and while he may acknowledge the stakes for the group, he does not entertain the idea that he personally will not make it out alive—because, as Dorian notes, he has a lot to live for. He has to get back home to his partner and his well-maintained garden; he has to make sure the Cerberus Assembly's nefarious schemes do not continue in Ludinus's absence, perhaps even in the absence of the Assembly itself, depending on what its members do in its wake; he probably has to go egg on his godson's shenanigans as payback for Veth threatening to shoot him out of the sky.

Caleb Widogast is an absolute cockroach of a wizard, and, in true Mighty Nein form, he is at all times thriving on unfinished business.

[maacbrem]

Absolutely insane about the Thelyss brothers in Vasselheim cause like

Essek the Bright Queen is RIGHT THERE SIR PLEASE - but then, so is his brother, his little brother he probably still thinks of as a child because they were allowed to be children so briefly before anamnesis failed to come and they had to make something of themselves as new souls in an ancient Den, and Verin is the youngest Taskhand of Bazzoxan and a highly accomplished Echo Knight but he’s going to war??? Against aliens and would-be god killers and Ludinus Da’leth???? And Essek is a heretic fugitive and selfish to his bones, but he loved his brother even when he didn’t think he was capable of love at all, even if he wasn’t very good at it. So he stays in Vasselheim and he makes sure that these strange, awe-inspiring legendary heroes know his brother’s face, his voice, his armour, so that maybe if he falls one of them will deign to pick him up. He thinks about his friends, far from him now (Caleb, out of his reach and likely preparing to do something reckless but too brilliant to be called foolish), and looks at his brother, who will also go, who might never come back.

And Verin??? The youngest son of his Den, the second new soul prodigy by necessity who never really understood his brother but loved him anyway, who mourned their father so hard that he tried to become him by throwing himself against the endless hordes of the Hells, who now answers the call of all the gods and Exandria itself to fight a war with impossible odds, offering himself and his soldiers as potential cannon fodder so that the legendary heroes of the age might emerge victorious? I need to know how long he’s known what Essek did (because I know that Essek confessed and part of him hoped that Verin would condemn him, his righteous, devoted brother), and I need to know if Essek faked his death or just vanished, and I need to know if Verin wept for him. Verin who loves his people and his country and his god, who believes in things like faith and loyalty because he’s never really had cause not to, who has to find a way to believe in his brother, too. He learns to recognize this Archivist disguise and a few others that Essek favours, and he stops referring to his brother by name ever just so he doesn’t forget at the wrong moment, and he carries the beat-up booklet of Ashari poetry that he first learned to read Common from that still has child-Essek’s penmanship in the margins and he thinks about how seasons change and how winter doesn’t really kill, it just rests, and the process of a butterfly’s metamorphosis isn’t really that far off from the Luxon’s decree to become your ever-bettering self.

Essek doesn’t say “come back” but he does say “fight smart” and Verin knows what he means. Verin wraps him in a spine-cracking bear hug, uncomfortable in his armour but Essek has gotten better about physical affection in the past few years and one day Verin intends to thank the Mighty Nein personally for that. Verin says “stay sharp” and then quieter he says “i’ll see you again” and Essek hears ‘in this life or the next’ and he very calmly and sanely doesn’t start screaming, but he does press a pearl to Verin’s forehead (Caleb’s variation of the somatics, a useless bit of sentimentality made powerful that Essek adores). And then they have to part ways before Verin rejoins the Kryn contingent and Essek disappears back into the crowd, two brothers finally on the same side but unable to stand together.

Anyway, I think they’re neat.

[foldbaron]

It's here. TLDW:

-They initially planned a bigger State Of The Role, but the LA Fires threw everything out of wack. Details were changing up until the night before they actually shot this update.

-Next week, February 6th, is the FINAL episode of Campaign 3, clocking in at 8.5 hours. The fires started on the day they were set to shoot the finale, so it's split into two parts since they recorded the second half later on. -The cast will be doing a live tale gate party at 6pm PST / 9pm EST leading into the finale. Yes, live live. On Youtube/Twitch/Beacon.

EXU: Divergence is the next mini-campaign DM'd by Brennan with players Jasmine Don, Celia Rose Gooding, Alex Ward, Liam O'Brien, and our sweet boi Matthew Mercer finally gets to play again! This begins on Feb 13th

Campaign 3's Wrap-Up will air March 13th at 7pm PST / 10pm EST. They'll be taking questions from Youtube, Twittch, and Beacon about all things Exandria from all campaigns.

There was no mention of C4 or The Mighty Nein's animated series, but they assure us they have much much more to talk about in the future for 2025.

[utilitycaster]

Look I do not know the exact circumstances about the Critical Role cast's personal choices but as someone who does clearly remember Campaign 2's ending and the Tumblr fandom's response:

not weird to announce something is the last episode fairly late in the game, we had two weeks warning for C2 as well

not weird to end here given the overall arc of the campaign being entirely about the moon plot. I'll leave it at that.

EXU Prime was filmed concurrently with Campaign 2 and began airing 3 weeks after Campaign 2's finale, it's not weird to air EXU Divergence right away.

We've heard like a thousand times that this was the culmination of a trilogy, it's not weird to have questions about said trilogy included in the wrap-up.

I think the wildfires may have altered the production schedule but I don't think it cut anything short - I think it just cut out some break weeks (and might be why this is one big episode instead of two more reasonable length episodes, and why they aren't doing a dark week in February). For all my criticism of this campaign's story, I do not think the cast would end things before they felt like ending them just to hit a deadline, especially since they set the deadlines.

At least in my experience on Tumblr, the response from the fandom when it was announced that there were two more episodes was pretty anxious, and then after 2x140 there was still trepidation but also a general sense of what would stick the landing and what wouldn't. Most people who were ultimately mad at the ending were invested in a very specific outcome (Molly being back, a canon ship breaking up, or a more explicit declaration of Caleb and Essek's romance) but it was overall pretty well-received at the time.

Not weird to have a BH combat-oriented one shot this soon; VM vs. Mighty Nein aired two weeks after the end of Campaign 2 and was filmed during C2. Obviously, this is specifically a fundraiser.

All this has happened before and (might) happen again/Plus ça change/those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it etc etc

[swordscleric]

I'm only halfway through the second phase of Predathos (which, to be clear is an incredible vibe for a bossfight, love a good head & hands/multitarget-same-entity boss) but I cannot shake the feeling of disappointment and just dissatisfaction I have had with this campaign that definitely started with Dusk/Yu, got followed up handily with the first Delilah/Sun Tree fight and then has been unfortunately reinforced with every discussion surrounding the Prime Deities since Hearthdell. This campaign is fascinating to pick apart, I have been really enjoying pulling apart why it isn't working compared to C1 or C2. But as much as I'm having fun dissecting where the worldbuilding has led to the current weaknesses in the gods' argument or reading other people's incisive commentary on the lack of personalities on the Ruby Vanguard's end, the "girlfailure" nonsense, etc etc, man do I wish this campaign was better than it is.

There are so many avenues of improvement -

Matt telling everyone to prep and write characters for this campaign instead of a C2-esque character-focused campaign.

Matt working religious organisations into the world properly.

The cast engaging with Marquet as a genuine location rather than set-dressing.

Otohan, Ozo and the rest of the Vanguard having more than "*insert snappy line here*" for their personalities.

No Delilah.

Bell's Hells having an iota of curiosity for anything outside of their own selves, including but not limited to: the gods, religious worship, the Elemental Titans and why they were sundered, how the people of Exandria feel about the gods, Vasselheim and its role in suppressing information about Predathos, Ludinus Da'Leth's plan and how it would still break the world if they did it in his place

I don't know why all of this fell into place in the way that it did, but it did. We can endlessly speculate why - the cast resting on their laurels after C2, not having enough time between the animated shows and Daggerheart and Candela Obscura and, and, and - but at the end of the day I really do hope that whatever form the final campaign wrap-up takes, they burn the damn questions asking the cast "what if the world was made of pudding and this character and this character kissed?" and instead pick questions that get them to introspect for a potential Campaign 4. Otherwise I don't know what will happen, but it sure as hell won't be Mighty Nein part 2: Issylra Boogaloo.

[revvethasmythh]

I genuinely just can't wrap my head around how people look at past characters who have strong relationships with the gods, some of whom were saved by the gods and think "yeah we should rip that comfort from them" like what?????

I mean, this is kind of a fundamental issue I have with c3, right? It's about the previous text not supporting the reading we're being asked to make here. Which, since I've been rewatching the Mighty Nein, only feels more true after hearing something like "The Wildmother planted her last seed in the Barbed Fields before leaving Exandria for the safety of the world to grow the Arbor Exemplar as a beacon of life and hope that even in the face of desolation we can continue on" and to see her intervene on Fjord's behalf against Uk'otoa (a very aggressive, cruel, mechanically evil lesser idol that will apparently not be touched by Predathos, were it to be freed) and then come to c3 and see people talk about the ultimate tyranny of the gods, with no differentiation between the Prime Deities and Betrayers. And some of this, to be clear, I think is deeply exacerbated by fan spaces who will run a marathon with an inch of leeway given to that perspective of the gods on nothing more than a predisposition against religion. So you get caught between these two texts--the campaign itself and the fan response text--and it's like. what are we doing guys. what's going on. The idea of an overwhelming divine tyranny in Exandria feels especially disconnected from canon when we have examples of tyrannical governments like the Dwendalian Empire who are allowed to ban religious worship. And the lack of touchstones with common people and their perspectives additionally makes it difficult to buy into this idea of the gods in c3 specifically. The Hells feel very isolated in their perspectives, which I think is a detriment to the story as a whole and it gives the impression of an incredible lack of empathy for everyone else. The conundrum of ripping comfort and faith away from people has been broached by Imogen in the campaign! But no conclusion was ever drawn and it hasn't come up again, so we're just. Lost in the mire of Bells Hells' personal deliberations on the state of religion for the entire world and it feels wrong because of that. It's too isolated an idea to feel worth applying it to LITERALLY EVERYONE, and I can't make presumptions for why the fan texts feel the way they do on the subject, but I feel it is something to do with the idea that any change is good change. Which is not true, and should require a great deal more consideration of the material effects of these plans being proposed, but. Alas.

[demigoddessqueens]

Hello there I was wondering if you can do Vox Machina or Mighty Nein or even both who are needy for reader attention like they give off bottom energy and want the reader attention so bad that they sit on reader lap asking for it and reader gives them what they want no hesitation.

So I’ll do VM for this one given I have a WIP for the M9 for something else

Masterlist 10

Percy

He’s a highborn. A noble. He should be above this type of behavior but he’s utterly beckoned to you and just wants you, wants your attention. It’s so shameless!! Ever trying to be the gentleman, he’ll be as humanely close by your side or hold your hand. But the kisses and touches on you linger more with each passing second.

Pike

She sometimes forgets to enjoy the better, intimate moments of a hectic travel life. Sitting in your lap makes her feel otherwise. Cherished, attentive, loved; you hold onto her consciously and absentmindedly until your attentions are beckoned for a kiss.

Grog

Every so often, even the biggest ones need a break. It’s amusing but sweet when Grog entirely leans his large figure on your shoulder, completely dwarfing you and a large arm wraps around you like a blanket.

Vex’ahlia

You didn’t think anything of it at first, given how she never shies from physical affection, but this time felt different. Legs on your lap and thigh(s), head on your shoulder and looking up at you with “that look”, you can’t tear yourself away fast enough from the crowds to be alone with her.

Keyleth

It was a debate within herself to be as close as she was to you now. It was even more of a debate to be so forward but you caught on. The Druid exhales the deep breath she didn’t realize she was holding in as soon as you reciprocate with touch, gazing back. Whoever or whatever occupies your time will not do so any longer.

Scanlan

The gnome bard starts off with some flirtatious excuse to be near you but he genuinely does want to spend time with you. Jokes and flirtations become more serious and solemn and you note the change in his demeanor. A gentle kiss back from you makes his heart leap.

Vax’ildan

Oh you know he’s just dying to get alone time with you. That pose with Bogie and Bacall where he’s holding her?? That’s Vax, except now the wings are cocooning you. Maybe he’ll stay around longer for your sake if you want him to. Or if you change your mind to be with him….

[wardens-bear]

it definitely makes sense that the finale will be so long bc obviously they have bells hells trying to convince the gods and they need to conclude their stories (including epilogues if yk everything works out well) but surely they must have to wrap up vox machina and mighty nein's stories too. probably something quick for m9 but there needs to be some sort of final bit with vm I feel like especially since they just got vax back. I mean this last arc has really been a culmination of all three campaigns so it only feels right to give each of them a send off

[hoardingpuffin]

Fable ending this week reminds me of when Mighty Nein ended. Both the excitement for the finale and the wondering how the story could possibly already be wrapped up I've seen around the fandom space, and my own emotions and plans around it.

Mighty Nein ended years ago now, and I still make fanworks and cosplay for it and likely will continue to do so.

And Fable, well... my costuming special interest is satisfied for now after finishing my Enderian Dress, but - I have so many fanfic ideas still so there is that.