Ja hallo

Hal as The Beholding -- Hal has spent most of his life as a spectator of his brother's accomplishments. His story is right now about overcoming his bystander impulses. Very Beholding-coded.

Bolaire as The Stranger -- come on this is shoe-in. He's a body-snatcher sentient object who likes the theatre. That's basically all of the Stranger's motifs.

Azune as the Spiral -- cause he likes to downward spiral lol. But really, Azune's constant lies-upon-lies to the point that when he had a breakdown about constantly lying the audience speculated the breakdown was another lie to manipulate the other players...like, Helen is clapping right not for real.

Murray as the Buried -- I swear this is not just because she's a dwarf. Okay maybe a little bit. But Murray is also the player the most keyed into the struggle of the working class, who pays the most attention to the way the Sundered Houses seem to be closing in around everyone and shutting off means of social mobility. Murray's story revolves around the metaphorical trap of hierarchy and oppression, placing her solidly in the realm of the Buried.

Thaisha as the End -- Believe it or not, the End goes to Thaisha and not our local dead boy! Thaisha' story right now centers around the conflict between her Circle's insistence on the cycle of life and death and Thaisha's unwillingness to let her loved ones' go. We see this when she goes against her Circle's teachings to save both Occtis and Alogar. Thaisha's inability to accept the death of her loved ones makes me think that the End goes to her.

Occtis as the Flesh -- Body horror shenanigans aside, Occtis' arc is one about reclaiming bodily autonomy. His story starts with his family (whose modus operandi is literally puppetting dead bodies and enslaving souls through scarring bodies) violently attempting to mutate Occtis into an angelic abomination under their control. While that failed, Occtis' body is now perpetually alien to him.

Vaelus as the Corruption -- The Corruption usually deals in hive-mind, saccharine cults where you give up more and more of your body and mind for love and acceptance (ex: Jane Prentiss, Beetle Wife-guy, the Sick Village). This mirrors Sylandri's treatment of the elves, where she enforced extremely puritan rules, controlled reproduction, and demanded the love of her 'children' in exchange for fairy-tale aesthetics.

Julien as the Desolation -- The start of Julien's arc is quite literally him losing everything in a largely arbitrary act of violence. The Davinos were not written down to die by anyone; they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and so they got brutally massacred. Randomly losing everything is basically the Desolation's whole shtick. Additionally, Julien's self-destructive attempts to raze House Tachonis from the map in revenge fits nicely the Desolation.

Kattigan as the Lonely -- Kattigan has repeatedly insisted that he doesn't connect to the idea of family. He wanders around, ghosting people and never really making meaningful connections. His self-doubt, as narrated by Brennan, insists that the family he once had must have been a hallucination because who could want him? He's supposed to be alone.

Thimble as the Hunt -- May I present to you the visceral joy in which Thimble carved up Cas as Exhibit 1. Exhbit 2 is Thimble's loyalty. Yeah, she knows Thjazi lied and that Occtis still has some Tachonis tendencies, but she's still violently defensive of them. While it hasn't reached Daisy-Basira levels yet (as both Thjazi and Occtis are much better people than Daisy), it feels like Thimble might be willing to go there.

Teor as the Vast -- Not going to lie, this is my weakest one, and is mostly based on the fact that (1) Teor is, aside from maybe Kat, the most well-traveled of the group; (2) Teor seems to view himself as a minor unit of a bigger picture; and (3) Teor has a serenity about him similar to Michael Crew and Simon Fairchild.

Tyranny as the Slaughter -- Tyranny is here to hurt people. She enjoys hurting people, even if she feels guilty afterwards, and a big part of her story is learning how to balance those destructive impulses with her burgeoning moral code. That's a not a dissimilar story to Melanie learning to properly harness her anger instead of lashing out unfairly and unproductively.

symbolically associated with both labor and freedom

strong work ethic

he almost definitely took Draconic sorcerer subclass and everyone who's been in middle school knows dragon girls are just horse girls but weirder.

usefullness is necessary to survive

big eyes that will show you the face of a dead god

associated with both

labor and freedom

hello we are team bird watching and we like to risk our lives

(+ even more scribbles bc i like them very much + i think that they should quit whatever their revenge is and go for circus. circus is calling them)

finally the teacher!jon comic i’ve been hyping up for like a week 

today, I urge you to vote for Artagan in the Critical Role Sexyman poll. the opposition will tell you Artagan does not have the experience to be the Critical Role Sexyman, and sure, he might not have your typical Sexyman qualities. he is not a sad war criminal nor does he engage in dubious science, but my friends, I ask you what is sexier than whimsy? than tomfoolery? than starting multiple cults through your fairy bastard shenanigans and getting bored of the responsibility? tell me, critters would you rather vote for a man with long luscious ginger curls that cover most of his body and fuzzy eyebrows that look like worms on a string or a man who cannot even grow a mustache?

presumably, this is an eye thing. either as employees of the institute, or because everyone there is just also eye-aligned in some degree (melanie had the ghost hunting show, the eye is fond of martin, etc)

and then there's tim in season 3 ep 86

[Sigh] Statement of… uh, Benjamin Hatendi… Hateendi? Regarding a… [papers rustling] a blanket. Dead friend. Monster. Regarding his unavoidable and gruesome end. How he tried to hide. He couldn’t. Statement is from… 1983, March 2nd. And I guess… [long sigh] I guess I’m doing this one. Tim Stoker. Archival assistant… Archival prisoner at the Magnus Institute.

correct me if im wrong but i don't recall anyone struggling with pronunciations before this bit. but that's not even the biggest thing here, that's just a lil Taste, a lil Flavor.

note the phrasing there. "Regarding his unavoidable and gruesome end." why would he say this when the written text on the statement says this:

Uh, right. Benjamin Hatendi’s account of… [rustling pages] oh for… a, a strange encounter. Er, statement date, March 2nd, 1983. Melanie King recording. Apparently.

"a strange encounter". that's it. nothing about an unavoidable death, just a "strange encounter". Tim Why Did You Say That.

why would our dear timothy bimothy, who is being pushed to the brink, who is becoming rapidly more depressed and losing hope, say this?

this isn't the only time he's said some weirdly grim shit tho (ep 104)

There was never really any hope for me, though, was there? This was how it was always going to go.

and then there's this bit from elias apparently having Looked into tim (also 104)

TIM All right, hit me with your X-ray eyes then, boss. What do you see? ELIAS Disruption. An unpredictable, angry man with nothing left but the desire to feel in some way revenged. TIM [Sarcastic] Ooh, terrifying! Surely only magic could have let you see so deep inside my very soul.

"nothing left" but the desire to feel revenged. and tim doesn't dispute this, because it's true.

when he first joined the institute he did so in order to look for answers about danny, but then he stopped seriously looking. and now that the circus is back, this is all the drive he has left. not looking for answers, just wanting revenge. closure. an end, if you will.

this is Literally It For Him. a couple lines later he suggests elias kill him, he's At The Breaking Point.

he is so tired, he's lost all hope, and he's saying all this grim shit about "unavoidable death" and "this is how it was always going to go" like hmmmm sounds familiar doesn't it. DOESN'T IT (<- is going insane)

(ep 11) [....] despite the rapid response of the paramedics and how much of his medical history I had immediately to hand, there was nothing I could do to save him. (ep 11) I have no responsibility to try and prevent whatever fate is coming for you. Based on my previous experience, such a thing is likely impossible anyway,[....] (ep 121) There. That was it. That was our fate; where we would always be.

hmmmm sounds a bit like oliver huh? everyone's favorite ex-accountant avatar of the end?? right??

but then there's this last bit i have from ep 86.

why did he stop reading the statement

Statement. “My parents never let me have a nightlight. I was always afraid, but they were ju–” Ugh, this is stupid.

why did he do that. again, correct me if im wrong but when else has someone just Stopped Reading like that without someone or something else interrupting them? why could tim just stop himself?

my theory is this: at this point, tim is completely gone from being aligned with the eye. he no longer seeks to know what happened to danny, he just wants closure. he doesn't wanna do any statement work, and he keeps mentioning these tidbits about hopelessness and the inevitability of terrible events, specifically death.

the eye isn't compelling him to read the statements like it does the others, because it doesn't have as strong a hold anymore. the grip is slipping from him. and by the time the unknowing rolls around, maybe it's lost him for good. maybe he finally fell into a different power he never meant to serve, and yet, he does.

and maybe. just maybe. because i'm so not in denial. but MAYBE. he did die in the unknowing. but maybe he got better.