#this show bends the laws of time every single episode doing it to accommodate a casting choice is nbd

[idkaguyorsomething]

rose noble absorbed so much of the metacrisis from her mother that she was able to grow 15 years old despite being born in 2010 and the star beast taking place in 2023

[princessamericachavez]

Unpopular opinion: I kind of hate how often the M9 are compared to Vox Machina. It's like the fandom won't let the M9 be their own thing and keep comparing every single shady thing they do to VM's actions in the first campaign, often forgetting that VM did plenty of morally ambiguous shit themselves. The M9 are not the new Vox Machina, they're a whole different party with different beliefs and goals, and it's unfair of the fandom to constantly put them in VM's shadow.

Hey darling, I don’t think that opinion is an unpopular as you think, and I entirely understand your frustration. 

I don’t personally think that it’s all that terrible. I mean, this being the second season of the show, comparisons are bound to happen. And they can be fun! Looking for parallels and contrasts is a fascinating way of analyzing media like this, especially when it’s not scripted so they happen by chance!

That being said, I feel like people do need to keep a few things in mind more often when comparing VM to M9:

We met VM way later in the narrative: up until the stream, they’d literally been calling themselves The SHITS. Apparently, they accidentally killed a member of Emon’s council (who happened to be a dragon) and then said nothing to anyone until the Chroma Conclave attack. Keyleth at some point apparently killed a kid? and also kept getting arrested? They had some hand in Allura’s tower being completely destroyed, then stole a flying carpet from her in the process and never came clean about it even after they’d befriended her. At some point, Grog slapped Trinket’s ass and sent him flying into a bunch of death traps and nearly got him killed???

VM had huge wtf moments too: The whole Cows and Consequences thing, after they murdered an old woman to save an ally they’d just barely met? Grog nearly killed a giant they’d managed to charm into helping them fight a beholder because he drank his ale? The first Briarwood fight is a mess much like this week’s where Vax forgot to meet with their spy ally, went in by himself to their bedroom while they were in it and nearly got himself and everyone killed, and Percy shot a young boy’s hand off just to get information from the Briarwoods even if he was just their driver and had no choice. And those are all just a few examples.

We got to see VM grow: The image we have of Vox Machina is their level 20 ish version. They were practically gods by the time the campaign ended. Fuck-ups and all, they’d managed to grow and fit in with each other well enough to work as an extremely effective team (most of the time, anyway, they still fucked up even in the end and that’s the fun of it). The M9 are level 6 and barely have been together for a few months in which most of them haven’t yet learned most of each other’s back stories and are barely beginning to grow comfortable in their own unique abilities. 

The context is entirely different: While VM moved around Tal’Dorei meeting relatively just and kind rulers, evenly powered councils and kind nearly mythological figures that were willing to do everything in their power to protect the world from huge threats... so far the M9 have been to an absolutist empire, a lawless country and a city with extreme laws where pranking a lord deserves death and enslavement powers the rich. These differences mean that, especially for well-meaning characters, clashes with authority are bound to happen. If we saw the M9 bend over backward to accommodate and befriend these less than just systems, though they’d get in much less trouble, would we really be able to call them good?

IT IS A GAME: For real, as long as the players are having fun telling this story, that’s all that matters. This week may have been a cluster-fuck, but most of the cast (Matt especially) were having a blast, and they’ve said time and time again that failure can be just as fun as success. Judging the M9 too harshly without taking into account how heavily dice-rolls affect their action and how their intentions don’t always give the best results because of external circumstances (like people attacking them on-sight two episodes in a row, effectively escalating matters?) would be short-sighted. 

So all in all, I’d say compare and parallel and make meta and analysis and have fun!!!! But, like, if you’re gonna do it, don’t forget the full picture!