dumb idiots anonymous

Spoilers for the most recent episodes lmao here we go:

essentially, as a character without any memories, Molly’s backstory was free to be woven throughout the lore of the campaign, and it seems it was: eye tattoos, the number nine, back of the neck power areas, themes of rebirth and iterations/continuations of the self, etc are pretty prominent this campaign. Nonagon/Lucien/Mollymauk REALLY reads to me as the natural momentum of a pact with something powerful, and 🅱️erhaps also evil. Can’t die, forced to keep climbing out of graves without any memories, etc. I’m just thinking: if I need to do something that requires immense secrecy, deception and obfuscation, (Tharizdun’s whole deal, Yasha adjacencies, etc.) I need to make it so that not even I can ruin it. I need to assure the loss of the autonomous self.

so, whether I’m a big powerful god or a weird-ass tiefling with a plan, I’m gonna do this shit in stages. And once each stage is done, I have to make sure the parts stay unconnected, at least to the casual observer or adventurer on the lookout for evil or whatever. No one should be able to come looking for whoever carries out the plan. So they’ve gotta die. Not in any meaningful way (contract’s not done 🅱️erhaps?) but the people they’ve hired should bury them, and not hear from them once they inevitably crawl out of the grave. So they shouldn’t be able to remember anything about their past, and maybe should even develop a drastically different personality for this iteration. But, dammit, even with all this, they still remembered that they crawled out of a grave. That could ring the alarm bell for the old crew if they’re still in the area. How bout a grace period of sorts: for a week after, they can’t really talk or develop clear new memories.

AND here’s a mysterious magic user woman from Rexxentrum with whom he’s working on this ritual who disappeared after (and there’s a mysterious magic user woman from Rexxentrum who healed Caleb’s madness and disappeared after, and there’s a mysterious magic user woman who told Beau’s dad what would make him successful and disappeared after, etc.) ANYWAY. Re:Yasha adjacencies, if the ritual is in a specific area, and Obann/the Chained Oblivion pseudo-own Yasha and track her, it can guarantee the body’s left in her path. No fuckin clue what that could mean but it’s true and it could be related.

we also have barely scratched the SURFACE of the Molly Lore. As @mollyglock once posted, “molly’s death is so funny to me. all his lore was in shady creek run. lucien was buried by shady creek run. gustav is from shady creek run. according to cree one of lucien’s pals is in shady creek run. and he died RIGHT before they reached it! and by funny i mean infuriating.” And Shady Creek Run is being mentioned time and time AGAIN….as they say…the lorecuckery IS real. What in fuck was Gustav up to? He ended up with TWO AMNESIACS with POWER AREAS ON THE BACK OF THEIR NECKS and then TRIED TO GO TO—and FOUGHT TO STAY IN—JAIL. And then the Jagentoths are tied in with ALL THE FUCK SHIT HAPPENING…they’re rivals of the Marduns/the Gentleman (who work with Cree and the Tomb Takers) and they employee The Iron Shepards AND Avantica, and then Reani said they’re fucking with UTHODURN…Imagine me gesturing wildly at my Pepe Silvia board.

final thing that has rung some bells in my head was those 3 bigass murals they found in the temple during the piracy arc. One of them had a giant purple and red bird, with multiple eyes on it, and its feathers were burning and reforming like a phoenix. (Tal also signs stuff with “A bird thought to be extinct, but isn’t. -Molly.” I don’t really factor that into my consideration at all, but it IS interesting.)

i could be super wrong and I’m open to that, but even before his death, I figured that, what with bloodhunters’ whole purpose being to sacrifice their own vitality to destroy enemies, Molly’s arc is so closely tied to death that dying doesn’t really end his momentum with regards to story. (Not to mention Bloodhunters, especially older orders, like Ghostslayer, have direct ties to the Raven Queen. Not saying Molly is part of the Claret Order or anything but it’s something to keep in mind, and also I just love some delicious bloodhunter lore.) I don’t know if Mollymauk as we know him is alive, but his body probably is, and whoever made him probably isn’t done with him yet. Re:Nonagon, the nines of the tarot mean a completion and fulfillment of the suit’s meaning, and Molly got cut off early. Doubt that’ll just end it all.

this was posted in NOVEMBER

ludinus comes to a meeting to talk to the group who negotiated a meeting between the leaders of warring nations and may have just stopped a cult from unleashing a betrayer god on the world. they should have a good place in mind for a safe, neutral location to bring royalty to, right? clearly, they know their stuff.

NOPE. they immediately suggest a) a pirate island they apparently got BANNED from, b) a VOLCANO where they were planning to take a leisurely sacrilegious vacation, and c) a forest that’s corrupted with an ancient unknown evil and slowly eating itself, where one of them apparently LIVES. the most feasible option they come up with is their STOLEN PIRATE SHIP, which they named the balleater (imagine the brain static) after murdering the leader of an entirely DIFFERENT eldritch cult (and most of her crew). he doesn’t fully understand what the happy fun ball is, but allura vysoren didn’t want to go in, and they’ve apparently been in TWICE?

turns out, as he realizes during their talk, they had zero intention of organizing this incredibly valuable cease-fire, and all they wanted to do was get their giant murderous friend back. toeing the line between two warring nations is their SIDE GIG. they implicate themselves as having committed piracy, high treason, grand theft: boat, espionage, sacrilege, and murder, and then they ask him, totally sincerely, if they could maybe please have pastries at their next meeting. oh, and chocolate.

the blue one— who, he has a sneaking suspicion, may very well be the strongest of all of them— compliments him and he realizes he forgot for whole consecutive minutes that’s he’s the head of the cerberus assembly, that they think he’s more powerful than them.

still reeling, he takes them to meet with his colleague of decades, whose methods he doesn’t love, but tolerates because they get results. somehow, he has the sneaking suspicion they won’t get along.

but it’s worse than he could have imagined, because apparently one of them was one of trent’s best students??? and he’s standing in this study, which he knows is stripped of the knowledge they’re flimsily pretending the empire doesn’t have. they have to hide national secrets from this group, now, and somehow ludinus is getting the feeling they’re not doing such a great job. and he watches this meeting with dawning horror, because it seems like they want trent dead. and it seems like they don’t mind doing it themselves. for the first time in years, ludinus doubts himself in that old way he did when he was still learning— he doesn’t think he’s strong enough to stop them.

for a moment, the wizard— caleb, was it? trent called him bren, but that didn’t go over too incredibly well— pulls at one of his sleeves, and ludinus recognizes those scars. for a moment, he doesn’t think he wants to stop them.

For…reasons, I decided I’d split this meta up into 3 large sections: The Empire (episodes 1-27) The Pirate Arc (episodes 28-49), and Xhorhas (episodes 50-85).

Numbers and a long post incoming!

The Method

I’ve been using a word search tool on Critical Role Transcripts. Inclusion criteria: the words “sorry” and “apolo–” (root for apologize, apologizing, apologies). I looked at each instance of these words and tallied both who was apologizing and who was being apologized to by looking at surrounding context. Exclusion criteria: speaking OOC, “sorry” used in the sense of asking a person to repeat themselves, and “apology” being used in the sense of discussing apologies as a subject, rather than actively apologizing. Limitations: This method is reliant on the completeness of the transcripts it works off of. It can’t really gauge the sincerity of each individual apology, and it’s also possible for characters to apologize without using the words “sorry” “apologies,” etc–Caleb and Yasha for instance are apt to apologize without using these words, and this method does not count those apologies. Interrater reliability is also nil–I did NOT double check this work or ask someone else to code the transcripts to compare. 

Part 1: Who Apologizes the Most?

Beau takes the cake here, followed a bit distantly by Caleb, and then Nott. But let’s take a closer look on exactly who everyone is apologizing to:

Fjord, though middling in his apology number, splits his apologies evenly between the party and outside NPCs, whom he apologizes to usually in an attempt to curry favor or run a con. Within the party, he has a marked preference for holding himself accountable to the group at large, rather than apologizing to individual members.

Beau also has a roughly even split between inter/intra party apologies, though in contrast to Fjord, she has a preference for apologizing to individual party members. Her strong connection with Jester and Fjord–the original triad–manifests itself in an increased number of apologies as she seeks their feedback on interpersonal interactions.

Caleb apologizes almost as often as he draws breath when speaking to NPCs! His version of overbearing politeness manifests itself in an incessant stream of apologies. Also, a non-insignificant portion of his NPC apologies are directed at Frumpkin (poor cat!) Caleb is much more reserved when dealing genuinely with party members–like Fjord, he’s of a collective mindset and more likely to apologize to the group at large than to any one member.

As we move away from the top table “faces,” we encounter a group of people far less interested in smoothing things over with the outside world, and far more interested in smoothing over tempers within the party. Nott is unique here for being far more interested in Caleb’s opinion and forgiveness than anyone else’s.

Within the party, Jester apologizes most to those she perceives as being in distress. Her most frequent apologies are related to her healing not being enough, or over her decisions to help one party member over another. 

Molly has lived a life of few regrets–despite his screentime and talkative nature, he has one of the lowest apology counts in the party. He and Yasha’s exclusivity as the circus band manifests as well in their lack of apologies–of Molly’s NPC apologies, the majority were directed towards other circus members. The one thing he does apologize for–twice–is for his past life which he doesn’t see as the party’s business cropping up to bother them all.

Yasha’s extremely taciturn nature may have contributed to her having the lowest apology count in the party–however, she is perhaps the most nondiscriminate in who she directs her apologies to.

Part 2: Who Gets Apologized to?

You know me: I believe that our language reveals all sorts of power dynamics, and one of those is the dynamic of who apologizes–and who is apologized to. So, who gets the most apologies from their fellow party members in the Mighty Nein?

Caleb holds somewhat of a lead here, due largely to the influence of Nott. Most party members have been apologized to roughly the same amount as they have apologized to fellow party members–with the exception of Beau and Nott, who have both apologized significantly more often than they’ve been apologized to, and Caleb, who has been apologized to individually far more than he’s apologized other individual party members.

Let’s take a closer look:

Unsurprisingly, Beau has been the main source of apologies to Fjord. Smh at Fjord thinking Beau doesn’t apologize!

Here Nott takes the lead, as they begin to forge a bond made from swapped secrets and confessions.

Caleb’s confession and “Bowlgate” had a discernible impact on these numbers. But Nott also had a tendency to apologize to Caleb despite his protests from the first episode.

Nott gets a fair amount of apologies both from habitual apologizers like Beau, and from more reserved people like Caleb and Yasha. Yasha’s apology for the group all making fun of Nott for eating children in fact stands out as one of the very few apologies Yasha has made at all!

Featuring: Beau beating Jester to a bloody pulp, an argument over spending money with Caleb, and copious Detective Duo shenaniganery

Neither Molly nor Yasha have received many apologies–which makes the distribution of apologies look more drastic than it really is. Nonetheless, Beau’s attempts to connect with Molly have had an impact here.

Similarly to Beau and Molly, Jester’s continued efforts to engage with Yasha have had an impact in the number of apologies she’s given in proportion to the rest of the party.