sanktjosiah

[sanktjosiah]

Finally finished this! I did post progress pics before so here's the final one. I miss our boy, long may he reign!

[sanktjosiah]

Mizu - Blue eye samurai fanart

[sanktjosiah]

Mizu, in every single episode, without fail:

[sanktjosiah]

Every single time I look back at my failures, the steps I've taken that have led me down a less-than-ideal path... the mistakes I've made that weigh heavily on my mind, I remember one thing that eases my guilt. That any low I have fallen to or may fall to, I know I will never fumble the bag as hard as this jackass:

Actual fucking dumbass. This douche had Mizu herself giving up her path of revenge to settle down and rear horses with him. She loved him, actually fucking loved him and gave herself wholeheartedly, and he gets scared 'cuz his badass bride wiped the floor with him in a spar.

Remember folks, you can fail as many times in this godforsaken life we have, but you will never be as big of a failure as this dick.

[sanktjosiah]

The great thing about a show bursting with queer characters as a normalized part of the world is that the story can have sexy tragic queer villains without it being a homophobic trope.

Diversity win! The hot card shark antique collector demon is queer! But so are most of the heroes and the Emprix that sent them there. The middle age sapphics are having a moment, and so are the situationship bis.

[sanktjosiah]

Just thinking about animated Essek saying "I don't really like soup" and cutting to everyone squinting and probably Veth grabbing a steak knife

[sanktjosiah]

titmouse animators, animating ep26: *sobbing*

me, also crying: I know, this is so sad, he’s -

titmouse animators: what. no these are tears of joy. we never have to animate that fucking tiefling and his goddamn coat ever again

me, thinking about the last arc of the campaign: um… yeah… about that…

[sanktjosiah]

It’s so important to me that the animated Mighty Nein shows Essek being uncool. Yes, I want to see him being the ice cold Shadowhand. Yes, I want to see him cast Dark Star. But I also want to see him trying to explain what soup is and anxiously chugging whiskey hot cocoa and making weird noises while being manhandled by Caleb polymorphed into a giant ape.

[sanktjosiah]

now that I've had two years to think on it (and 3 lovm seasons to reflect on): here's some mighty nein moments that I would love to see in m9 animated that I think will actually have a shot at making it in:

- Caleb's and Fjord's conflict over the scroll in the High Richter Heist (Fjord holding a sword at Caleb's neck), or something adjacent, likely put in in a different fight scene

- Fjord, Jester and Yasha being kidnapped

- Caduceus's creepy eye-butterfly dream the night before the fab 4 arrive at the grove

- Beau's underground brawlery backstory scenes

- Yasha's scream at Molly's grave (still)

- Finding the beacon for the first time

- Walking through the worm tunnel

- Avantika and Fjord..

- Caleb holding up the beacon in the Bright Queen's court

- Cupcake scene (obviously)

- The King's Cage (Beau and Fjord barely making it out, Jester screaming for Yasha)

- Fjord throwing the Falchion into the lava, and then gaining the Star Razor

- Nott to Veth transformation scene

- Fjord's last stand on the ship + being killed (Dark Waters ep)

- Ruby performance

- Jester's giant lollypop

[sanktjosiah]

Some additions I thought of:

- the M9 trying to fit their moorbounders through the door of the Aurora Hold

- Henry Crabgrass

- "Help, it's again."

- "We're running, it's bad."

- that moment when Dagen takes a bite off of the cocoa ball and it starts foaming in his mouth

- Caleb in Jester disguise trying to lip sync to her prerecorded message to pick up Calianna's package

- Jester's leaf costume

- Jester polymorphing the roc Fjord was riding sending him plummeting some 70ft to the ground

- "We will inquire about these sexy bugbears."

- bald Fjord

- Beau in her hot red tieflingsona watching her one dude's tiefling dissapear

So with the upcoming Mighty Nein animated series I thought I'd compose a list of moments I'd like to see in the show. These do not include Big Emotional Moments or Important Plot Points because then the list would be way too long and those moments should have a list of their own if anything, this is really just a collection of my personal favorite smaller moments that I find funny, cool or endearing.

My wishlist of The Mighty Nein moments for the animated series in no particular order (spoilers for the whole campaign):

- Sprinkle being shown surviving in the background of M9's shenanigans Scrat from Ice Age style

- Jester's Sendings having the exact same style, tone and energy as they had in the campaign

- also getting to actually see the reactions of the people on the other side

- The Ring of Fire Resistance

- that moment when Beau gets swallowed by the remorhaz and Jester kills it with a ✨flavored✨ Guiding Bolt

- The M9 actually getting to meet Verin this time

- Yasha using Skingorger as a snowboard

- that moment when the M9 teleports to Rosohna in bathrobes and Caleb later uses Seeming to make it look like everyone but Fjord is wearing their normal clothes

- that moment when they're trying to water ski to get within spellcasting range of the dragon turtle and Caleb slips and bounces off of the water like a skipping stone

- The Bone Flute

- Caleb wearing octopus-Frumpkin on his head during the entire tense conversation with Fjord in Dashilla's lair

- Sheepleb

- Caleb turning into a T-Rex on a boat

- Capeleb grabbing Essek and showing him in the clerics' faces like a broken doll demanding him to be fixed

- Caduceus bitchslapping the boat

- Molly's "plan" on infiltrating the hospital

-Jester's hamster unicorn Spirit Guardians getting more and more buff as she levels up

- The Bad Luck Bandits

- Fjord nearly getting killed by a turtle

- Allura calling Yussa a fool after he gets trapped in the Happy Fun Ball

- M9 asking Halas if he has a sex golem

- that moment in the Cognouza fight when Jester hits Lucien with a giant egg dick that she wills into existence

- "Marius, have you killed anyone yet?"

- the M9 girls getting drunk and tattooed while the boys are just chilling and eating fish and chips

- Essek's stress hot whisky cocoa

- *sigh* "Do you have a bucket?"

- also Caduceus peer pressuring Astrid and Eadwulf into gardening

- the M9 discussing illegal shit in front of Bryce

- Veth and Ottis tetris folding themselves trying to hide behind Fjord

- Beau dumping drugs in the monster baby's stomach

- Beau being trailed by the zhelezo while trying to be inconspicuous with a cart full of fireworks

- Tracy

- Tusk Love both being given by Jester to various people to read or just randomly popping up throughout the show in unexpected places

- Yasha "casting" Message to talk to Veth

- the fey cats getting progressively more and more exasperated at Caleb's elaborate requests

- that one dragonborn who risked blowing up his cover and went to a party because he was bored in his exile

- The Gentleman franticaly cleaning up and hiding the illegal shit in his hideout before Marion shows up

- Yasha being sucked into the upside-down waterfall at Rumblecusp and jettisoned into the air Looney Tunes style

- The Chair™

- Fluffernutter

- not a single one of Essek's jokes landing

- Essek bringing up his fists at the frost giants while slowly backing up into a corner

- Beau punching Artagan in the face

- Fjord trying to intimidate a forest and getting eaten by a plant immediately afterwards

Feel free to add your own!

[sanktjosiah]

[sanktjosiah]

So with the upcoming Mighty Nein animated series I thought I'd compose a list of moments I'd like to see in the show. These do not include Big Emotional Moments or Important Plot Points because then the list would be way too long and those moments should have a list of their own if anything, this is really just a collection of my personal favorite smaller moments that I find funny, cool or endearing.

My wishlist of The Mighty Nein moments for the animated series in no particular order (spoilers for the whole campaign):

- Sprinkle being shown surviving in the background of M9's shenanigans Scrat from Ice Age style

- Jester's Sendings having the exact same style, tone and energy as they had in the campaign

- also getting to actually see the reactions of the people on the other side

- The Ring of Fire Resistance

- that moment when Beau gets swallowed by the remorhaz and Jester kills it with a ✨flavored✨ Guiding Bolt

- The M9 actually getting to meet Verin this time

- Yasha using Skingorger as a snowboard

- that moment when the M9 teleports to Rosohna in bathrobes and Caleb later uses Seeming to make it look like everyone but Fjord is wearing their normal clothes

- that moment when they're trying to water ski to get within spellcasting range of the dragon turtle and Caleb slips and bounces off of the water like a skipping stone

- The Bone Flute

- Caleb wearing octopus-Frumpkin on his head during the entire tense conversation with Fjord in Dashilla's lair

- Sheepleb

- Caleb turning into a T-Rex on a boat

- Capeleb grabbing Essek and showing him in the clerics' faces like a broken doll demanding him to be fixed

- Caduceus bitchslapping the boat

- Molly's "plan" on infiltrating the hospital

-Jester's hamster unicorn Spirit Guardians getting more and more buff as she levels up

- The Bad Luck Bandits

- Fjord nearly getting killed by a turtle

- Allura calling Yussa a fool after he gets trapped in the Happy Fun Ball

- M9 asking Halas if he has a sex golem

- that moment in the Cognouza fight when Jester hits Lucien with a giant egg dick that she wills into existence

- "Marius, have you killed anyone yet?"

- the M9 girls getting drunk and tattooed while the boys are just chilling and eating fish and chips

- Essek's stress hot whisky cocoa

- *sigh* "Do you have a bucket?"

- also Caduceus peer pressuring Astrid and Eadwulf into gardening

- the M9 discussing illegal shit in front of Bryce

- Veth and Ottis tetris folding themselves trying to hide behind Fjord

- Beau dumping drugs in the monster baby's stomach

- Beau being trailed by the zhelezo while trying to be inconspicuous with a cart full of fireworks

- Tracy

- Tusk Love both being given by Jester to various people to read or just randomly popping up throughout the show in unexpected places

- Yasha "casting" Message to talk to Veth

- the fey cats getting progressively more and more exasperated at Caleb's elaborate requests

- that one dragonborn who risked blowing up his cover and went to a party because he was bored in his exile

- The Gentleman franticaly cleaning up and hiding the illegal shit in his hideout before Marion shows up

- Yasha being sucked into the upside-down waterfall at Rumblecusp and jettisoned into the air Looney Tunes style

- The Chair™

- Fluffernutter

- not a single one of Essek's jokes landing

- Essek bringing up his fists at the frost giants while slowly backing up into a corner

- Beau punching Artagan in the face

- Fjord trying to intimidate a forest and getting eaten by a plant immediately afterwards

Feel free to add your own!

[sanktjosiah]

putting the dhampir in a maid dress as god intended for today

[sanktjosiah]

Y'all, I can't stop thinking about Olrox's relationship with vampirism.

Despite being a vampire, despite occupying a more antagonistic role compared to the other protagonists, he is shown to quite ostensibly 'have a soul'.

He recognizes the inner conflict Mizrak is contending with regarding working with Bàthory to harvest corpses to turn into night creatures. He recognizes that night creature Edouard has a 'human soul' and wonders what he did to deserve such a fate. He appreciates Edouard's singing, rather than being annoyed by it. He refuses to bow to Bàthory until he absolutely has no choice, and questions hers and Drolta's treatment of the other vampire at the vendee (Asking "what did he do?" when they're holding him down and branding him). He tells Tera that it's good she's still following her heart. Tells Mizrak that he is driven by longing, desire, and love and not hatred and disgust.

We spend season two with all of these moments where the characters ask themselves, "Do vampires/night creatures have souls?" "To what extent are they capable of love and empathy?" and we see Olrox repeatedly act as the living proof that despite his inclination toward self-preservation... yes!! Yes they do!! And yes they are!!! The first thing we learn about him is that Julia Belmont took someone away from him who he loved very much!!!

So I keep coming back to his conversation with Tera, and I like that his line is, "welcome to immortality" instead of, "welcome to vampirism" or something akin to that. Because it presents their 'condition' as an arguably value-neutral one. They're not suddenly soulless monsters, they're still themselves, or at least capable of remaining themselves so long as they 'follow their heart'. The true struggle of the vampire is not one of a loss of the self—of being cursed to live as this soulless thing that only craves blood—but how to hold onto one's self over an eternity.

It's a struggle Olrox has embodied throughout both seasons: How do you honor yourself and the people you love when faced with injustice and impossible odds? Where does one draw the line between cowardice and survival? How many times can you compromise parts of yourself before you no longer recognize the person you've become? To what extent can this process be considered 'survival' at all?

We're used to seeing vampirism framed as a moral tradeoff: you can be young and powerful forever, but it will cost your soul/humanity. Or you can be young and powerful forever, but who really wants to live forever? If Olrox believed vampirism robbed you of your soul, it's doubtful he'd have turned his lover—but clearly he doesn't believe that. And evidently, given his proclivity towards self-preservation, Olrox does want to 'live forever'. 250+ years into his life as a vampire, he still loves, and still wants to live.

Which leaves the blood, and the fact that the very concept of a soul as we're used to seeing it in relation to vampirism is rooted in Christianity. But what weight do these kinds of spiritual arguments have for someone who doesn't share this conception of the soul, or the afterlife, or the universe as a whole?

What weight does "you'll lose your soul" have to a person coming from a population whose genocide was justified under the papal "Doctrine of Discovery", which basically said, "it's okay and even encouraged to steal from, brutalize, and enslave the people you encounter on newly discovered lands, so long as they aren't Christians/refuse to convert."

What weight does "but you'll have to feed on the blood of the living" have to a person coming from a culture where everything on earth is seen as part of the flesh and blood of the gods, and where the spilling of blood is seen as repaying a debt to those gods for giving humanity life and sustenance?

What weight does "you'll have to kill people to survive" have to a person coming from a world where capturing people in ritualized combat for the purpose of sacrificing them was considered a noble calling? An act that helps perpetuate the existence of humanity?

What weight do these arguments have coming from people who are stealing, beating, enslaving, and killing you in the name of their own God? People who don't think you have a soul anyway, or at the very least, think that the only way to save your soul is to completely surrender your beliefs, your culture, and your identity first?

You take away these arguments and you're left with the cost of immortality itself: how to hold onto your sense of self over an eternity, how to keep following your heart, how to not lose yourself.

But even this struggle is already how Olrox's people would have understood ethics and spirituality. A soul is not 'damned' or 'saved'. Rather the three components of the soul are constantly in flux, and man's great spiritual struggle lies in teotl—achieving, maintaining, and continuously restoring the balance of these components over the course of their life.

In this context, vampirism can instead present a chance to outlive the very people who are destroying your world by spilling their blood instead your own. In the face of imminent genocide, it offers survival—without having to compromise much of who you are and how you understand the world. It represents refusing to give up the fight against an enemy that wants to eradicate you, wants to destroy any and all traces of your humanity, wants to make you bow to it and surrender the very core of who you are.

How might this perspective help Olrox to justify turning the people he loves into vampires? Seeing his lover be subject to much of the same genocide, cultural or otherwise, that he experienced himself? To give someone he loved the promise of living to hopefully one day see a better future for his people? Seeing Mizrak be suffocated by the confines of his loyalty to the Catholic church—the very entity that effectively signed off on the genocide of Olrox's people—and wanting to show him, "no, I still have a soul, and so will you"? That there's "nothing to fear" in being turned into a monstrous thing? That the people who are doing this to you, who are causing your suffering, already see you as a monster anyway?

[sanktjosiah]

REJOICE! It's vampire lovers season!

[sanktjosiah]

It was too hard to pick so Mizrak went for double: sleeping with a male vampire 🤷‍♀️

[sanktjosiah]

Olrox!! Olrox no!!! The redemptive nature of love is NOT deontological!!! Your ethic of care has gotten twisted, bro!! It is not enough to do something out of love!!! Your expression of care cannot be successful if the object of that care is not receptive to it and the consequences it brings!! You're repeating the cycle of trauma that brought you here in the first place!! Olrox—!!!