critical role, mighty nein

“hey, cherae, what are you doing on a saturday night? you’re so cool, i bet you’re doing something cool.”

as a matter of fact, you are so right.

i’m at home having a solo date while my partner is out to dinner with a friend. i ordered delivery (yogurt tantuni from a local turkish joint; if you don’t know what it is, look it up, treat yourself, thank me later) and i’m going to watch #themightynein.

last week, when i started episode 5, i just started tearing up. it’s still so amazing to me, maybe even moreso now that i’m on the inside and know how hard it is and how many roadblocks there are to making something like this. the kind of art that i love: fantasy adventures with queer and nuanced characters, a blend of humor and tragedy, relationships with depth and care and flaws. it just chokes me up, you know? it’s always inspiring, too, as a writer and storyteller. i always feel possibilities open up.

so here i am, a week later, ready to watch ep.6.

i’m new to the actual play scape, i’ll say that first off. loads of friends, two in particular, have told me i would love it, but i was always scared away by the length of the episodes (most of them around 4 hours). i thought, why would i listen to one of those when i could listen to an audiobook? and i barely watch tv shows, so putting on the youtube of the play itself was out of the question.

it’s not that i didn’t try! for various reasons, both professional and personal, i tried to watch critical role: campaign 2, the mighty nein campaign, read the beau and yasha comics. fine, i’ll own up, i’d watched enough of the lesbianternet go wild over beauyasha and there was enough fan art for me to know that it was definitely my shit. but i didn’t know how the game worked and i didn’t have time to sit and watch, and so i gave up.

then, this autumn, the same friends—you may know them, in fact: Tasha Suri of The Jasmine Throne and Jess Barber, who wrote a short story in the Vox Machina collection—tried to convince me again. CR: Campaign 4 had just come out, so there weren’t hundreds of episodes to catch up on, it was dark and all about the deaths of the gods and a failed rebellion, basically all the things that i love. (i also couldn’t ignore that the M9 animated tv show was coming soon; that was definitely going to happen. i knew i could handle that kind of commitment.)

it just so happened that i had a lot of train travel coming up, so i would have some stationary time to kill, and my eyeballs hurt from all the computer work i’d been doing in the lead up to promo season.

several hours between the north and south of the uk and…

well, shit. i was hooked. continue to be. so much so that when i ran out of episodes last week because of the thanksgiving break i was Displeased. plus, it’s great great great for running, so if i ever start marathon training…i’m all set. hours and hours.

so after i finish ep.6 tonight, i’m gonna watch the second half of C4 ep.8.

it’s what all the cool kids are doing. 😉

Highlights So Far

• Favorite M9 Character: Obviously, so far, you guys know it’s gonna be Beau, and I know I WILL love Yasha one day (today was a good start), but honestly—ep.5 has me thinking that Caleb Widowgast is actually the character of my heart. You know what I like to put my characters through…
• Favorite C4 Character: I suspect that later Vaelus may come to the forefront; but…
• Favorite C4: DOCTOR J. FINGER. And tinkerbell’s revenge.
• Favorite M9 Moment: end of ep5. that’s all i’ll say.
• Wicander Halovar’s ever-ready holy text
• Beau’s abs and arms and undercut
• Yasha’s arms and big big sword and eye makeup

• Favorite M9 Moment: end of ep5. that’s all i’ll say.
• Mollymauk’s cards: a great character note, and never knowing how much of it is true and how much of it is the clever manipulation of those around them

I could go on! But I won’t. Don’t worry, my friends are getting it in the group chat.

Are you watching either of them? Favorite characters? Moments? Other Actual Plays I should watch? I’m enjoying Brenden Lee Mulligan as a DM, and I like fantasy settings.

Hope you’re having fun out there, too—

C. L.