#even on just beau and caleb

[wireless-telegraph]

Watch me consume TNEOL three times this year and still get upset every time because no one thought to try a remove curse spell in game

#even on just beau and caleb #tneol really made it obvious to ne that book was hella cursed #and i just can't help but wonder what would happen if they managed to cast before the point of no return #aka most of the tomb takers dying #tneol spoilers #lucien tavelle #for context i was mad no one cast it in game when cr2 was live and the book really clocks how right i was #luciens downfall was a mix of pride grief and a curse that morphs the psyche #i think about the horror lucien felt upon remembering the somnovum and them reminding him he can't leave before the curse seemed to take #hold agian. and thinkig about Vess nullifying its effects and how hard Molly tried to use his poor Cha to bring clarity to Lucien #i have a lot of thoughts about all of this

[incorrect-mighty-nein]

Jester: I JUST REALIZED WE DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT DINOSAURS SOUND LIKE! THEY COULDVE BEEN SPEAKING FLUENT ZEMNIAN FOR ALL WE KNOW!

Caleb: it’s too early for this shit

Beau: GUTEN MORGAN HERR PTERODACTYL!

Caleb: I regret everything

#Beau learned basic zemnian just to piss off caleb when she (intentionally) uses it incorrectly #but also to do shit like this #Caleb whines about it outwardly #but inwardly he’s very touched that beau is just enough of an sweetheart to learn his native tongue #even if she’s a bastard about it #the mighty nein #critical role #incorrect quotes #caleb widogast #beauregard lionett #jester lavorre #the mighty queue

[laurasbailey]

yes c2 has been over for a long time and the critical role fandom has always had a glaring misogyny problem so this post doesn’t say anything new but idc!

i want to talk about the very stale take (which apparently still exists because i just saw it???) that “early campaign beau is hard to sympathize with because boohoo she’s mean :( and we don’t learn anything about her for a long time so i am simply incapable of liking her until she’s more agreeable for my misogynist brain :(” and idk about you but nothing says “i’m only watching cr for the men” more than that statement because it’s the biggest lie lmfao

from the very beginning it was clear beau had been mistreated in the past and was using her bravado to deflect. that’s just... using literally the most basic form of human intuition lmao. by episode four we know that her father paid the cobalt soul to take her in against her will and as early as episode two she tries to deflect any questions about her family/home. at the end of ep 4 we have more clues about her trauma/past than any of the other characters! and we know her I’m So Tough act is just that because she gravitates towards quite literally the first little girl they come across who needs help. marisha even says on talks machina that beau is projecting with toya, and idk about you but when a young woman who’s been shipped off by her father tries to help a little girl with no family, i think it’s really easy to put two and two together.

no, trauma is never an excuse for your behaviour whether it’s mild or not, but to say you can’t sympathize with early campaign beau with all of those context clues is fucking wild. 

#c2 rewatch #i don't even think early beau is that bad but that's a post for another time #you all had no trouble sympathizing with caleb before you knew anything about his past but whatever! lmao #yes cr fandom is sexist blah blah not new info #but it's always wild just how much you're willing to show your asses like??? nothing subtle at all

[the-caleb-widogast]

modern day mighty nein college au but its the early aughts and jester has the most expensive sim plan ever because duh of course marion will get the best for her little girl and its also so that her little girl will be able to call and text her no matter how far apart they are and yeah jester does that but now unfortunately jester also blows up the rest of her friends phones and the nein have to learn how to carefully type their texts with as little vowels as possible because aint no way theyre spending more than twenty cents on a text to be able to fully respond to jesters insane messages and caleb yasha and cad dont even have phones but jester gets them phones just to be able to send them texts

#beaus parents got her a phone w a good sim plan but she threw that at a drunken assholes head the first chance she got #jesters phone has the most insane amount of cute and phallic keychains and the next time you see her theres even more and its to the point #where she carries around a backpack just to store her phone and her gajillion keychains #critical role #the mighty nein #mighty nein #jester lavorre #marion lavorre #caleb widogast #yasha nydoorin #fjord stone #beauregard lionett #veth brenatto #cr2 #c2

[wizardnuke]

if fearne pickpockets a sending stone off of beau or caleb who would be the funniest for her to call. every option is killing me. yasha. essek. jester. astrid.

#now yasha is funny because she's going to make blatant threats since she can't immediately send and make sure beau's okay and no matter #how outlandish 'I'll fucking find you' might sound at first coming from someone in wildemount. that is a Threat. fearne doesn't even know. #essek will send and make sure everyone's okay and then have the most formal and polite conversation one can have with fearne. #ten years of jester has prepared him for this. she confuses him into admitting he's caleb's partner #jester and fearne. obvious. she sends and makes sure everyone's okay and then no one can get the stone away from fearne #bc she just found her new bestie. jester starts making plans to show up. here's how the entire m9 can cameo in c3 #astrid is funny bc similar to the prev two she can make sure everyone's okay and then she's either going to try to interrogate fearne via #sending stone with mixed results (fearne flat out tells the truth but the truth is very confusing) or she leaves her on read

[stardustedknuckles]

I'm so fucking glad Beau's not softer, like. It's been 7 years and she's still restless and comfiest punching the shit out of things. Still impetuous, still half of the team with Caleb's more pragmatic tempering. Still looking out for each other. Still family. Still THEM.

#cr spoilers #beauregard lionett #caleb widogast #Empire siblings #I can't tell you the damage the wrap up episode did to my mind #The idea of Beau behind a desk and a working girl was hard even before kids were brought up #I'm very very aware it's a perfectly normal happiness to find #It just wasn't what I needed in projecting on her #Not yet #Anyway I love them and I love Beau so much

[sea-buns]

I was rewatching the marisharaygun highlight vid of the m9's flawless heist (y'know for old times sake) and the moment I saw Travis' face when the first gravity sinkhole gets cast, I had to pause to fully process the realization that THISSS WILL BE ANIMATED!

IN ALL ITS DISASTEROUS GLORY!!!

he's so real for this reaction and I'll be using it at every opportunity

#like can u imagine the cuts from beau lying flush against a roof slowly pulling out two acid viles and MAYBE a dagger #to yasha weaving flower crowns inside fjords god-forsaken marine layer #to SEVERAL guys getting flung and CRONCHED into the ceiling #before caleb gives the very calm and collected and totally sane 'sarsaparilla'?? #shits a fucking masterpiece in the making i tell ya #also the chapter notes on that vid are so fucking funny. Beau Becomes Dexter. Travis only speaks in nouns. Hot Pockets! #every instance of 'Dear [blank]: What the fuck man?' spoiler there are many instances #any my all time favorite: Caleb is Here to... Save... the Day...? #thats not even half of them. everyone go watch the marisharaygun highlight vids on yt they are perfection #critical role #cr2 #the mighty nein #mighty nein #tm9 #m9 #yknow sometimes im so very comprehensive with my tagging system and sometimes im so indecisive and so forgetful #the mighty nein animated #c2e127 #kinda wanna go and just rewatch the arc of them running for their lives from ikithon #its got big scooby doo running through so many doors that dont make sense energy #travis willingham #he is the peoples champion in reacting to insanity. he and ashley just get us fr

[captainofthetidesbreath]

Seriously, I do think Bells Hells having an overnight in Nicodranas, doing absolutely nothing of note in a beautiful seaside town after all these stressful recent events would do them a lot of good.

Yes, really, any town would do, going back to Yios would do it, but I'm saying Nicodranas specifically since Caleb and Beau are here, so it seems actually possible to end up there.

A lot of it is self-indulgence, but I do really think the party would benefit from taking a break in a seaside city nicknamed the Escape, a place where Bells Hells doesn't appear to have any shadows lurking over them there. Just fooling around and maybe some conversation.

#I also like to think they all would benefit from conversations with Caleb and Beau + the Nicodranas trio. #There's just something about the way they all are that I think hypothetical conversation even in philosophical sense would be fruitful. #About dunamancy. About gods and faith and Melora. About Ludinus. About fate or lack thereof and choices. #About power and control and temptation toward darker things. About agency and grasping it again (or perhaps for the first time). #About becoming. About becoming something you don't like or fear to be. About pacts and patrons and finding new ones. #Anyway anyway. Maybe I'll rewrite these tags into a post later. #Critical Role things #CR spoilers

[dent-de-leon]

A lot of things about Lucien’s backstory make me want to cry, but at least with his parents gone, he’ll never be hurt by them again as Molly/Kingsley…

I just…don’t even know how the Nein would react to finding out what his own parents did to him. How would Caleb feel, who went through something so similar—yet who had a mother and father that truly loved him? Family is everything to him. The look in his eyes if he found out how much Tealeaf was abused by them as just a child—

Everyone was so protective of Beau when they faced her father. Thinking about Beau finding out that Molly’s own parents sold him to a hag in another life, how he was just seen as a part of a devil’s bargain too.

Yasha, who is so full of love and so fiercely protective—meeting these people who broke Molly’s spirit in another life, who betrayed him just like the Skyspear did to her. Yasha making sure they never have the chance to hurt him again.

#just #it breaks my heart #I think yasha caleb Beau and jester would be especially horrified and livid and #I wonder if they were still alive #what the nein would even do #I’m grateful that at least molly/king will never have to meet them #I hope that’s one memory that never comes back to them #anD AZRAHARI TOO #I know killing her made Lucien feel awful but #at least in another life he’s now free of them

[utilitycaster]

.

#this is A Lot to say even for me but also I'm so right here: Imogen and Laudna are the anti-Fjord and Jester in terms of character vs ship #while the other ships for fjord and jester largely sidelined them as accessories to the other person in the ship #(cad for fjord - no one ever suggested Cad go to sea - and caleb and beau for jester) #somehow imogen and laudna are both sort of reduced to appendages of each other in the larger depiction of the ship #like initially it was imogen to laudna...but as it became clear imogen was engaging more with the plot that fell apart #but it was never properly flipped either #so it's just like. there's a lot of art of them but there's precious little actual meta on the relationship #because there's a hole where the substance should be #and i find this fascinating and kind of sad bc there are things i like about it and them #(it was also tbh sad re: the C2 ships which did have good things about them if you actually liked both characters involved) #(but so few people did)

[shadowtraveled]

i know i’m constantly chewing drywall over shadowgast and it is because there’s so much to drive me insane there and i’m extremely fond of them and their batshit fire/mirror dynamic but if i even Think about essek’s induction to the mighty nein or his feelings toward and friendship with them i will lose my fucking mind

#thought about beau’s ‘fuck. i like him’ and yasha talking to him about loneliness and penance and him deferring to fjord when the tombtakers #showed up and veth working alongside him and caleb in his little wizard laboratory and also the veth essek anxiety drinking and the obvious #relief when caduceus enters a room and the way that caleb gave essek what molly gave him. mollymauk changed essek just as much as any of the #nein and does he even know it? #and of COURSE there’s the EVERYTHING about the insane wizard romance. but then i’ve saved jester for last because truly TRULY essek was only #ever able to become who he was by the end of the campaign because of her #essek thelyss is an interesting character for me for a number of reasons but maybe most of all because he’s sort of emblematic of who the #mighty nein are and how they interact with the world #practically every guest on c2 talks about how meeting this party of assholes changed their character decidedly for the better and yeah that #REALLY is who they are as a group #and it’s most obvious in jester and mollymauk #those two catalyzed positive change in the party itself throughout the course of the entire campaign. we don’t have a mighty nein without #them. but that becomes a key trait of the group as a whole #i like them a completely normal amount i promise #critical role #essek thelyss

[grayintogreen]

Ashton is really showing their Molly If He Decided to Emulate Beau energy tonight.

#even directly quoting molly!! #that we don't leave anyone behind that's the deal has lived rent free in my head #and that speech ashton just gave to fcg was fucking identical in energy to a speech beau gives to caleb in ouadya #i am shooketh #critical role #cr spoilers

[thedragonagelesbian]

like everyone in the fandom, im deep in my m9 feelings after the two-shot announcement, and with the tantalizing possibility of more kingsley content, i’m fixating on how much of campaign 2 is about stories and how the lucien/mollymauk/kingsley triad encapsulate that theme.

what stories do we tell about ourselves? about others? how do we mythologize ourselves, to justify what we’ve done or to protect ourselves or to enshrine ourselves in rose-tinted memory? what stories do you construct about yourself when you are no one, a blank slate whose entire worldview is shaped by the narratives that someone else tells you?

who listens? is it a captive audience at a circus? is it a close group of friends repeating your story over and over again, rubbing away the rough edges until all that remains is the polished half-truth? is it nobody? are you the heroes no one knows about, whose story will never be sung?

are you the last chapter of someone else’s story? how do you claim your own narrative when that someone hunts you, haunts you? do you reject them or do you put them gently, kindly in the grave?

and who do you get to be when you finally have the freedom to choose?

#campaign 2 is a ghost story okokokokokok #this isnt even TOUCHING the way that books function as objects and symbols throughout the campaign #or the way that cultural and societal narratives are at play esp in the early campaign #the stories we tell ourselves about the enemy to justify war #the way that story changes when we learn more about them #the cobalt reserve and the soltryce academy and beau and caleb and VESS DEROGNAS BOOK AHHHHHHHHHHH #critical role #im just...... rlly excited to see kinglsey again and see what taliesin can do with the character with a bit more breathing room

[irissteth]

What's the bet Vox Machina are gearing up to come wreck shit because "They hurt our Kiki!"

Oh there's no doubt that the minute Vex finds out (which might take a minute because of, you know, the applebee solstice) she's going to summon absolutely EVERYONE. Percy's probably working on a telephone but will happily bring out a new gun he's been working on. Pike will close the shop the MOMENT her connection to Serenrae is even slightly broken and will run as fast as her little legs will take her to the castle and that's half of VM right there.

We already know Scanlan is on Marquet, he'll get there first if Kiki is still on the continent (my headcanon is he's traveling with Grog but that's just me).

Hell, Kima will probably join them if not Allura as well. We still dont know if tree-stride is a thing or not but if it does happen to work still then Vilya will be able to get them around even if Allura cant, and if all else fails? Whitestone has an airship.

Their first mistake was hurting Kiki-- but when Kiki tells them that they orb'd Vax?

Quite possibly the only thing scarier then an angry Imogen is an angry Vex'ahlia. Ludinus doesn't stand a chance if the band gets back together.

#TLOVM #anon ask #this is just my take but Ludinus done fucked up #That's not even including the fact that he also hurt Beau and Caleb #Veth learning her eldest son is collared? She's about to WILD OUT and Kill #Yasha learning her wife and the mother of her adopted kids is in chains? #Those kids are getting dropped off with Aunckle Dairon and shits going down

[circuslollipop]

......

#hi!! person who actually needs glasses here!! i think glasses imogen is neat :) #and i know for a fact im not the only one!! #saw a Take floating across my dashboard and im Incensed right now #also like. i dont get the argument that 'there would be pushback against it if it was any other character' like no?? the more the merrier??? #i actually like glasses molly a lot for instance!! i hc that in a modern au he gets them #in canon i dont think he'd realize he needs them #and like. besides that ive seen beau caleb essek and jester all with glasses? fjord too i think at one point?? and like!! #heck yeah!! you do you!!!! #anyway im mad lmao #why do we keep bringing this up just let fanartists do what they want as long as its not like whitewashing and such #like tbh i didnt even like. care that much at first i was just like ah neat!! when ppl started doing it #but when this whole pushback started it just made me become a fierce defender out of spite

[wizardnuke]

YALL EVER THINK ABOUT BEAU.I SURE DO.

#I'M GONNA THROW UP #idk if any of tmn can get the award of 'most emotionally repressed' #but beauregard 'refused to give her backstory until they were half a day from her dad's place and she was in tears' lionett #is really close to the top #all the time I think about how mundane her story is in comparison to the rest of them and how hurt she is #and how ride and die and loyal and loving she is in her awkward and unused to giving/receiving affection way #she wasn't loved as a child. she couldn't get any positive attention from her parents so she started acting out. she was sent away. #end of story. no archmages or demigods or archfey or demons or hags technically in that she never knew if that was a true story #from her pov she was just. unloved and never enough and the cobalt soul gave her fighting skills and independence and she ran with it #and tmn love her dearly. they make sure that she knows. do u ever think abt that. #also she's SO smart I think about it All The Time she's so so smart but she wasn't smart in the way her dad wanted her to be #she rarely ever brings up that she is just. CRAZY intelligent she gives caleb a run for his money- tho they have different skillsets in #that area too. I think abt her lucien rant all the fucking time. marisha's brilliant it's insane that she pulled all that together #and it's insane that she could translate that over to beau like that. like yeah beau's really Like That. she figured it all out. she's so #ever think about how molly's death absolutely changed her as a person. she knew him for like three months max and she got so so attached #understandably so. she loved him so much. they fought all the fucking time. he gave as good as he got.. for the first time someone was #listening to her even as they didn't agree. newsflash miss regard there r people who can and will take you seriously.