My fav thing about Shadowgast that I don’t see people talk about nearly enough is how yes, narratively, they’re foils, parallels, cut from the same cloth, truly poetic storytelling... But aesthetically they’re opposites attract in the funniest possible way.
Cause on one hand we have the epitome of elegance. Essek-fancypants-Thelyss. So graceful even walking is beneath him. He’s beauty he’s grace, he’ll lie to your face. He floats. He brings fine wine to your dinner party and has only the most well-manicured feet.
And on the other hand we have Caleb-“bush man”-Widogast. Stinky, dirty, sanatorium-escapee who hasn’t bathed in months. To him, rain=shower and warm bread=gloves. Sometimes he has conversations with skeleton heads cause he’s so normal. He definitely smells like wet cat.
Aesthetically, they are Eve x Wall-E. They are the Lady and the Tramp. They are fancy man x trashman. What’s Essek gonna say when he sees Caleb eat bread off of his hands like he’s eating chicken off a drumstick? Idk but it’s my favorite thing to think about.
I've been watching Critical Role Campaign 2, never managed to finish it when it was airing, but this time I'm determined! Got 30 episodes left to go!!! Absolutely loved it, Essek is hands down my favourite Npc, what an amazing and complex character 🥰
Definitely want to do some more Crit Role fan art, and open to any suggestions if there is a particular character you want to see in my style 😊
"The Bright Queen nods towards you and glances over towards one of the nearby male drow figures sitting to the right of the dais. Very handsome, head held high, looking down upon this with a curious glance. A similar mantle to what you noticed Lythir wearing, but much more elaborate. You can see the robes that he's wearing that pretty much entirely obscure the body. They just fall, they go entirely around the mantle and close in the front so it's this beautiful, draped, deep purple and black robe that completely obfuscates the body. "
every episode with essek in it before the Reveal is so funny because he’s there for maybe 45 minutes max and he spends a third of this time staring deeply into caleb’s eyes, another third giving away state secrets, and the other third saying the most out of pocket batshit things like he expected his swag to carry him through any trials and/or tribulations. he called beau’s cocktail racist and then dipped. they invite him in to dinner and he’s like ‘yeah i made my dad so angry he died. normal. anyways what are your innermost driving motivations, wishes, and fears? is this how conversation works?’ and the nein collectively were just like it’s ok he’s hot. and you KNOW he’s all up in his mind with the whole tortured genius melancholy resignation sadness angst thing and it’s like baby no you’re just bizarre and unusual. god.