I know you said you need to stop screaming first but I am EAGERLY awaiting your thoughts on Essek in the teaser
OKAY OKAY HERE GOES.
The thing is, there's no real reason to include him.
Yes, he's very popular, but he has never historically been included as a default, validly! He occupies a very interesting space mechanically and narratively, but he is still not a PC. Yes, he's part of the Mighty Nein as a group, per canon, but not until the end, which in theory would be well beyond the first season, and so is Cad, who is not present in this teaser—presumably to preserve the mystery around [INSERT MAJOR SPOILER WARNING HERE].
I would imagine that Cad is not present because having Taliesin's voice twice is too much of a tipoff for anyone watching LoVM but not the campaigns, whereas simply having Matt voice someone is not.
HOWEVER.
There are a decent number of lines that you could choose for Essek that are about the Nein—personally, my favorite, that I've thought previously would make a really stellar trailer line, is from 124: "You certainly carve a unique destiny, don't you?" Everything down to the way Matt delivers it (which you can see here) would make it a really viable option.
But the line they went with isn't about the Nein—it's very much a line about Essek himself. "I want to unlock these mysteries. I want to dive as deep as I can into that ocean of the unknown and see what is possible." It's a line that is very specific to Essek and his actions and goals, even beyond his involvement with the Nein.
And it's placed in the middle of the pack, which frames him on the same level as the rest of the Nein! Someone who is not familiar with the campaign would hear that as simply another protagonist. But of course, he's not—unless there is some serious restructuring (more even than the restructuring present in LoVM, which, aside from introducing a few of the initial less plot-bearing aspects later, like the Slayer's Take, it's thus far structured in order), he won't come into the show for quite some time, and almost certainly not in the first season.
But we don't really have any idea how this show will be structured. There are different comments on the beginning from different sources; notably, Gizmodo mentions Calianna being present in some way initially, while no one else does. The logline most outlets are reporting revolves the Nein "prevent[ing] the kingdom from plunging into chaos when an arcane artifact capable of reshaping reality falls into the wrong hands," presumably the beacon (my beloved).
So it makes sense to mention Essek, for, you know, the obvious reasons, as comment on the beacon itself. (I'm going to guess they're simplifying it to one beacon, per the press release, for ease lol.) But this line, while about dunamancy as a whole and the powers of the beacon, is not about it directly. It's still about Essek's interest in it. It is an excellent line, and on its face, it has nothing to do with the Nein or the plot of the first fifty episodes of the campaign.
There's plenty of speculation to be done about how this might be structured, and I'm sure I'll do plenty of it because, let's be honest, I do not shut up about adaptation and translating stories between formats, it is one of my absolute favorite subjects, and this is the Nein, babey!!!
So my point here being: I think there is a lot of room with the nature of Wildemount politics to get a little wild with structure in the translation from D&D game to TV show that, while not impossible in LoVM, wouldn't really have added anything to the story, and honestly, might've taken away from it. Because the point is to watch Vox Machina become the big damn heroes! We do see tidbits of Brimscythe and the Briarwoods beyond the purview of the heroes, but mostly in ways that feel very '80s cartoon villain cameo' which fits the feel of the show perfectly.
But there are a lot of political players and forces in Wildemount that the Nein navigate whether they're aware of them or not, one of whom of course becomes a member of their party, and that's part of what makes their story so interesting. The Nein are the heroes that no one knows, who are always playing within and against the system and are hyper aware of that, and I think expanding how much of that we get to see now that the format allows for it (not necessarily a lot, not to the point of adding whole plotlines, but at least some of it) would only add to the tension and stakes, and Essek's presence in the trailer makes me wonder if they will.
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I legit thought my computer was going to explode a few minutes ago. The Nvidia card made a sound like it had been literally kicked in the nuts into high gear. Everything froze. Then all 3 sets of considerable fans in the case blasted on. Hard shutting down (holding the power button down) did not work for about 10 very long seconds, giving me plenty of time to wonder if this was how death was going to come for me. I honestly kinda wish it would have. This thing might as well kill me as a grand finale.
In other news, Dell removed their most current BIOS and the previous 3 versions. I'm sure there's nothing suspicious about that and that everything Dell is doing is really cool and awesome and will promote perfectly working computers.
I know it's not all Dell PCs but, God bless, it's more than just one or two, if my research proves anything. I wish I could get a refund so I could trade this off for something that actually works. I wish I'd never bought it. Maybe I can save towards some entry level PC that can't game or vid (which is no different from what I have right now) but might not make me feel like I'm taking my life in my hands just turning it on. I don't want to be scared of my own computer and I actually really am of this one.
If I disappear for good, just know I love you all and I died doing the thing I love the most: endless computer repairs. 😑
I'm joking... well, about loving endless computer repairs at least. ☠️
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Prompt #1,081
Coming from a digital world, a lot of things that seem second nature to Headmate A are computer tricks the rest of their system has yet to pick up on. As such, Headmate A becomes the defacto member to go to whenever someone needs help with a technical issue.
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