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Today’s the debut of the D&D Beyond animated commercial! Seven years on and we’re waiting with baited breath for the announcement of when we’ll see the Mighty Nein campaign animated for real, and i feel like this was the moment that tipped that boulder down the hill.

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I love that we got soft-balled the weeping angel and the spider stitched together with a moth to start with, and then Laura and Liam came in as a creepy little Victorian girl and the freakiest guy at the sex dungeon.

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Happy Caleb Trauma-Dumping Day! :D

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Travis operates on unique probability rules, in that the universe will give him a disproportionate amount of Nat 20s if the outcome would be insanely awesome, and it will also give him a disproportionate amount of Nat 1s if the outcome would be fucking hilarious.

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The start of Harvest Close has such a “rallying your friends out of the hotel to go to Ren Faire” energy, cozy beyond belief ☺️

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that's it that's the campaign

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I did manage to (mostly) catch up for Harvest Close, just couldn't watch yesterday because work. And though I don't think this little arc is quite done, from wrapping up the High Richter quest to about when the Nein leave Zadash, still wanted to offer some thoughts because the party pulls off a surprising amount of development in this small section of episodes.

No particularly coherent thoughts on the Beacon heist other than the fact that they've never pulled off anything so smoothly since. Jester, Caleb, and Nott swiped a legendary artifact of cosmic power and importance right out of the Crownsguard's hands, on full alert and in full view of a crowd, and didn't break a sweat [insert Mission Status: Sick meme].

I feel like the Scrollgate talk maybe opened some gates for this party, because from what I can tell, Nott laying some of her cards on the table about how she feels about her place in the party and what her and Caleb's relationship is would be the first time any of them actually opened up about something emotional and important to them rather than trying to deflect (Jester's a bit of an exception, but that's expected), and after this it's a bit like the dominoes got tipped over: Molly tells the truth about his past, Fjord tells them about his difficult childhood issues and his struggles with how he's perceived by himself and others, Beau doesn't go into a lot of detail but she's not really hiding the fact that her childhood was neither simple nor happy anymore, and though this hasn't come up quite yet, Caleb comes out about His Whole Thing. It helps that Matt seemed more than happy to needle them with backstory shit almost non-stop during this stretch: Cree's appearance, more Uk'otoa dreams, Trent Ikithon's first appearances at the Zauber Spire attack and Victory Pit, and of course the Gentleman, though that one initially goes over their heads. The timing of it all is great, since after this arc the Nein get back on the road again, but now they (and the audience) are leaving with more context for both each other and the world, perfect jumping-off points for building a fantastic story. The Zadash arc is a load-bearing beam for C2 and I stand by that.

Speaking of Scrollgate, rewatches have only cemented, if not deepened, how annoyed I am by Molly and his attitude toward Nott during this stretch of episodes, both in a "this behavior irritates me" way and a "I'm so mad I'll never know" way. Molly always seemed particularly antagonistic/condescending toward Nott in particular for reasons I've never fully been able to parse. I understand it in a tragically ironic way when he's talking about his past; her insistence that the past matters even if he doesn't want it to could be seen as dismissive of his feelings, and he had no way of knowing how similar and yet opposite they were in their experiences, so him snapping at her makes sense. However, the way he talks to her after Scrollgate, repeated dismissal of her intelligence and experience, and generally dogging her for no reason a lot of the time, it has always pissed me off because I really don't know where it's coming from. Sure she's shady at times, but so is Caleb and Molly doesn't go after him nearly as hard, and sure she's weird, but Molly brags about the circus being weird all the time. If I had to guess, I'd say that maybe Molly was banking on initial impressions of her being very young, and despite his own shortage of experience he saw her as someone he could sort of mold into his way of doing things (ie: the circus). Then she proved more independent-minded than initial impressions and refused to toe the line, and since all Taliesin characters share the flaw of thinking they're the smartest person in the room whether that's true or not, Nott constantly questioning him and poking holes in the logic and ethos he built up over his two years of life got under his skin. That's just speculation though, and since Molly died I'll never know for sure, nor will I ever find out how he would have reacted to the entirety of Veth's story and the ways in which they were similar. It'll drive me crazy til my dying day.

Conversely, every time through the Zadash arc makes me like Fjord more and more. I mean, I always liked him, but the appreciation deepens. He always seems to be putting in the work to make this group functional and is generally doing the best at it. Caleb and Nott are trying but have to balance their insularity and personal goals, Beau means well but struggles to explain her legit points without sounding like an asshole, and Molly says he wants the group to work but has specific ideas of what that should look like and doesn't take refutations of those ideas well. Fjord meanwhile genuinely seems to listen and try to find a balance that works for everyone, and even if he doesn't have the right impression at first (Nott correcting him about her relationship with Caleb), he's happy to reevaluate and meet people where they're at. Even after Scrollgate, where Fjord admits his need for control got the better of him, he jumps right in to make sure they all get out safely and tries to pull the group back into cohesion. No wonder he got elected unofficial party leader.

C2 was really cooking with the majority of its dungeon crawls, even the short ones. Siff Duthar's research lab was basically a single puzzle and a boss + adds, but the atmosphere and imagery were so palpable, and the dread history of the Calamity is just hovering over everything like a shadow. Retrospective context from the Calamity trilogy and everything we've learned since only serves to make it cooler and spookier, turning the little snippet we get into this guy's life into a short form horror where we can more than fill in the blanks ourselves. Chef's kiss, the Calamity continues to do wonders for Exandria's flavor and worldbuilding.

And now, HARVEST CLOSE! I'm not sure where it sits in the top 15 or so episodes of C2 for me, but it's in there somewhere.

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Just wrapped up the Knights of Requital mini arc (so Ep 9: Steam and Conversation - Ep 12: Midnight Espionage). Hoping to keep blitzing and be caught up by episode 17 because it’s one of my favs, but in the meantime some thoughts on this chunk of episodes:

- The early episodes of C2, especially here in Zadash, did such a good job of laying a solid groundwork for everything to come. The players got the time to do some low stakes stuff so they had time to get to know each other, Zadash was a great location for really getting the flavor and ongoing conflicts of the empire, plenty of foreshadowing, and there was enough breathing room for the group to figure out who they were and wanted to be. I know plenty of campaigns start off with an inciting incident that immediately kicks off a plot and it works fine, but I’m a big fan of these slower starts that really let things simmer.

- The Mighty Nein really were just constantly needling at each other over everything, and this is meant in a complimentary way. Between Fjord clearly trying to scope out who was trustworthy, Beau’s nosiness, and Jester and Nott’s general lack of filter, the characters were constantly playing bumper cars against all each others’ secrets and backstory-influenced behaviors and quirks, and it’s so fun on a rewatch watching them violently stomp on each others’ rakes. Even something like Caleb’s commitment to being grubby, which could have easily just been passed over for character flavor or being eccentric didn’t slip past Beau.

- Ive said this many times, but the early C2 vibes were just so good. I’m not sure what particular sauce Matt was cooking with for this one, everything was just so vivid and well thought out (or maybe my nostalgia goggles are on too tight 😆).

Anyway, on to episode 13.

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Fell a ways behind on Nein Again thanks to the Great and Terrible Beast (real life), gonna attempt a bit of catch-up.

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I love that the Syphilis Bandit encounter is so ridiculous that Matt makes it canon that it’s not just Travis quietly cracking up, it’s Fjord fighting for his fucking life to not die laughing and blow the whole thing.

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"We are... The Mighty Nein."

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god I forgot this was the setup to so many of Caleb's issues that exploded in Zadash and also this makes the episode 72 glove thing so much more meaningful...poetic cinema

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The cast really comes out swinging at the top of the episode with the quick improv comedy. Beau meeting Caleb’s cagey response about the gnoll priest with one of my personal favorites “Yeah but you did that though.” The triple joke of Jester, Nott, and Molly: “I like rings 😊” “I like sticks 😁” “I like manacles 😏.” And of course, “You look like a nerd” in the flattest possible tone. Excellent form from everyone this episode.

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Now that I am at last free from my bonds of servitude (six day work week) I can finally catch up on Nein Again, and it’s one of early C2’s banger episodes 😁

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It's been interesting coming into Campaign 2 as a newcomer whose been hanging around in the fandom for a minute because it means I'd heard the criticisms of the early campaign as being "directionless", but eight episodes in it's really ringing as untrue? Like the Mighty Nein have had clear goals and motivations the entire time, even if they're as simple as "Caleb wants to visit a large city with a good bookstore" or "Jester wants to find her dad but in the absence of concrete leads (though she does have a ledger of her mother's clients, of which her dad was one) has decided to make it her mission to help Fjord reach and enter the Soltryce Academy" or "Beau thinks the Baumbauchs are dicks so she stole their mail and found herself fascinated by this one contact called 'The Gentleman'".

What I think people were clocking about these early episodes, and describing as "directionlessness" was actually the lack of a big central Plot Goal that all the characters were working towards. The Nein at this stage of their careers aren't working to stop any wars or cults or slavers or sentient cities, they're traveling together because being together is convenient and all their individual goals are pointing them in the same direction (or no direction in particular so might as well stay with the group). Whereas the early episodes of Campaign 1 had the Plot Goal of "find and rescue Lady Kima" and, once that was achieved, "help Kima recover the Horn of Orcus". The individual members of Vox Machina had their own personal motivations that intersected with this common plot goal, but it served as something the whole group was reaching towards. The early Mighty Nein episodes don't have the same sort of overarching plot framework, as Matt opened up the world after the initial run of episodes in Trostenwald and left it to the players to decide where the pursuit of their individual goals would take them.

But every character pursuing an individual goal did give the early Mighty Nein a direction; they were all pulling towards something and making choices in hopes of being brought closer to it, even if those goals varied between the group's members. The absence of a Plot Goal didn't result in the group having no direction. Indeed, as Campaign 3 would later demonstrate, the presence of a Plot Goal doesn't guarantee a group will have direction. It's the ability of the characters to turn motivations into goals and actions that creates this momentum.

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Thinking about the fight against the guards in the second episode of divergence. It hits this sweet spot so rarely seen in combat/action heavy media: one where violence (even violence where goodness is victorious) isn't triumph but tragedy, and yet we must still strive for it for the sake of freedom.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some massively triumphant and cool moments in that fight (Crokas using the vestige, uprising of the common people, the captain of the guard falling, Crokas' epic resurrection, multiple pc's gaining level 1 mid fight), but it's also a fight whose very nature and purpose is dependent on the unfairness of its existence. These people aren't fighters. To have a chance of winning, the party must urge other refugees even weaker than them to join a fight against a much more powerful opponent. Brennan all but spells out that these people are weak and scared and there’s nothing fair in asking this of them, yet it must be asked anyway or they're all doomed.

Rei'nia starts out trying to usher vulnerable people to safety; she must pivot to instead urging them to fight. She chooses to put Luz, the only living connection to her missing family, on the battlefield. Luz, just as weak as everyone else, dies; Rei'nia is left not in the triumph of victory but questioning if it was worth it. The kenku who stepped up and shouted that they cannot all be killed is one of the first to be cut down. Erro, the one who started the fight and was left at death's door, is asked before he knows how it will end for him whether it was worth it. Crokas ends the fight fully catatonic. Him being covered in blood from his kills and having been resurrected by lightning is cool as fuck, but then the fight ends and we see him not triumphant but barely remembering how to be a person.

Other big epic fights may have moments of tragedy, but it’s when one of the (usually powerful) main characters or their loved ones fall. Unnamed NPCs may fall to the wayside as nothing but flavoring to show the seriousness of the fight. Here, everyone is powerless. Everyone has an NPC statblock. The players must personally pick the refugees the choose to put on the battlefield, knowing they will likely die.

We are left remembering there isn't truly anything cool about all this. It’s hopeful for sure, desperate people coming together to grab hold of their fate; but it's still a tragedy that it had to happen at all. It’s an unfairness and a dehumanizing horror, yet it's necessary to embrace the unfairness of resistance and horror of violence for hope of freedom to have a chance to be born.