when liliana was talking about how ludinus started out being a nice and helpful teacher before like… indoctrinating her, I was just picturing the stand-off inside of Liam’s brain between Caleb “I am just like her I am a horrible person I believed a horrible teacher and did horrible things we both deserve to feel terrible and be punished and destroyed” Widogast and Orym “she was literally complicit in the murder of my family. she is trying to release an all-powerful being. she has HAD her chance to walk and she has REFUSED. she deserves all the rage I have to give” of the Air Ashari

i forgot laura’s pregnancy announcement, marisha sneezing so hard she cracked a rib, them being named The Mighty Nein, them getting their first magic item info card of the campaign, the first mention of The Gentleman, caleb’s “take them out take them out” backstory tease, the first appearance of the Bad Luck Bandits, them pretending to have “extreme syphilis,” them finding out jester's mom's whole deal, “the Ruby of the Sea is the best lay ever,” and the debut of Pumat(s) Sol all happened in the same episode

What is your favorite mighty Nein art you've done?

of course i can’t pick one fave, and i honestly haven’t done a whole lot of group art of the nein, just mainly beauyasha — but here are some of my fave pieces i bring up often:

(beware c2 spoilers in here)

I actually started this drawing before finishing c2 so while drawing I was thinking "oh this would be a fun what if" but then I finished the campaign and!!!! It's not really a what if anymore!

and yes Caleb is bluescreening into oblivion

Allura saying she's heard from some of the M9 recently. You just know it's Jester. Constantly.

Are you pooping?

Allura just having flashbacks to that time Percy shot a kid's hand off in front of the palace and the time Vox Machina murdered an old lady in the middle of Emon and the time she walked in on Grog and Percy coming to blows over a cursed Githyanki skull and the time the Nein almost brought Halas back and honestly probably all the dumb shit her own group did back in the day (which I hope we find out about one day [novel plz???])

taking "loot the body" to a whole new level

it's a pirate's life

I really appreciate how Matt plays Birdie. There are a lot of elements of her story and behavior that remind me of Veth. I always liked that Sam chose to play a mother, but that he made sure not to reduce her character to that. And Birdie feels the same. Yes, she (at least says that she) is motivated by her concern for her daughter, but she isn’t overly affectionate towards Fearne, this grown woman who Birdie has never really spent any time with. I get the feeling that Birdie cares for the concept of her daughter, rather than for the actual person she is. How could she care for her? She doesn’t know Fearne! And I think to some degree ‘protecting our daughter’ can become a very convenient abstract cause to cling to. To say “We are doing this for the greater good of keeping our daughter safe” is the kind of sentence that can justify any kind of morally ambiguous or downright illegal behavior and can even be twisted into a reason to leave the confines of what might have been expected of a more ‘traditional’ mother-daughter relationship. 

I think Birdie loves Fearne and cares for her deeply, just like Veth loved Luc. But when Nott was turned back into Veth she suddenly had to face the truth that while her goblin form may have started as a valid and true reason to keep her distance from Luc, it did at some point become a convenient ‘excuse’ to explore the world and travel with the Mighty Nein, something Veth just wanted to do (and had the right to want).

I really appreciate these explorations of what it means to be a mother and that motherhood can look and feel different to different people. Neither Birdie nor Veth are presented as bad mothers. They are presented as complex characters with their own wants and desires which might or might not align with their roles as mothers. You can feel that struggle in both of them (that they feel like they messed up somehow or missed out), but I feel like the narrative presents those feelings with a lot of compassion instead of condemnation, which is still so often the case when motherhood is discussed in popular media.

Despite being a comparatively "godless" campaign, C2 gave a look at Faith much more relateable to modern-day audiences.

More detail under the cut

Caduceus

Caduceus's version of religion is facinating because he experiences what many would perhaps call the religious ideal. His god is real, good and benevolent. His god is has tangible reasons behind not being omnipotent (opposing gods + divine gate). He can communicate directly with his god and be heard. It is not part of a heirachal organised religion.

As such, it is completely and utterly alien.

Jester

Jester is fascinating in her deeply personal relationship with her god: her comfort and best friend. The traveler is her God in a way he was no one else's. For the longest time, her friends didn't even think he was real. Which he wasn't, but that's okay.

I do like the way they handled her disillusionment, in that it did not mean total rejection of her entire worldview for the past few years, but rather the negotiation of more open and equal arrangement.

This perhaps is one of the best ways I've ever seen a modern religious storyline portrayed in a fantasy setting with real gods.

Yasha

Yasha's relationship with her god is an elusive lifeline. She does not, cannot understand him, and that's okay. There is a certain reverence and awe in Yasha's faith which was truly captivating. The stormlord was not there to solve her problems, he was there to guide her, forge anew and redeem from her the rubble of her life under oban.

the transgender swag exhibited by the m9 is off the charts.

Four of them go by chosen names. Beau’s dad wanted her to be a boy, and is disappointed that she isn’t. Fjord remade his personality to mimic the only father-figure in his life. The two strongest people in the party are both girls. The person with the long pink hair and undercut and teal/pink mushroom aesthetic has the deepest voice in the party by a COUNTRY MILE. Caleb grew his hair long and shaved his beard as soon as he felt it was safe enough. Mollymauk Tealeaf is there.

the early vibes of c2 were so nice they literally got out of prison and were just like "well shit where should we go" and basically picked a spot on the map and headed somewhere just for the hell of it and stuck together cuz they had nowhere better to be

[C2E93]

i am in my beau feels once again!!

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into the eye

i understand all the laughs out of "we trust you most the most untrustworthy person in exandria" to essek, but I think his reaction is. so on point. for him, that meant they value him, that their trust in him is more important than, well, quite an incredible amount of power trent and the volstruckers could have brought with him. they trust their odds with him better. caleb, a person who, i think essek thinks, has a similar math brain to essek, does trust their odds with him better. for a person as calculating as essek is... of course, it would have cracked him up. it's (partially) because of this awareness of their choice away from potential power, i think, he says, "i hope to make this up to you."

"Take me out to the ball game" now lives in my head the same way "Sarsaparilla" does.

Both innocuous terms now associated with extreme acts of violence in a sanatorium by two deeply wronged and traumatised men. Sean Finnerty with his lucky baseball, hitting his final home run to avenge his brothers. Caleb Widogast casting gravity sinkhole on the guards below the sanatorium where he was held for 11 years.

Both powerful scenes roleplayed by talented actors committed to their characters and their depiction of the long-lived consequences of trauma.

Both scenes will rotate around my brain like a microwave until the end of time.

i am thinking very hard about this conversation and about "im so tired." "i want to go home." and "dont you want to stop fighting?" "of course we do". and im thinking about Yeza, looking at Veth, terrified of losing her, and asking- do you think you guys can do it? do you think you can save the world? (do you think you can come home safe?)

and Veth, saying:

no.

but i think we have to try.

thinking of yeza saying: i dont want a poem, i want my wife, and thinking of hopelessness, and purpose, and trying, of long journeys home, whatever that looks like. of knowing you might not make it back. of having fought, and bled, and given, and being asked to give more, fight again.

arent you tired? of course we are. are you sure you can do this? of course not.

and yet. and yet.