A long overdue summary of my spoiler tagging. For weekly shows, one shots or animated series, I spoiler tag for one week post-episode release. For books, I try to tag for about a month. Beacon exclusives (either live shows that haven’t been aired publicly yet or true exclusives) get tagged until they are aired publicly, and then get the same tags as the weekly shows.
I’ll be tagging the spoilers for the animated shows themselves, but won’t be tagging for the campaigns they’re derived from. So if you want to experience the shows blind, my blog is not safe for that!
Campaign 4 and one shots get cr spoilers
The tag for The Legend of Vox Machina is tlovm spoilers.
The tag for the The Mighty Nein show (for now, we’ll see if people reach a consensus on tagging) is tm9 spoilers, and is also tagged m9 animated.
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[Id: Three drawings of Nott/ Veth with people she cares a lot about. In the first picture, Caleb is hugging Nott in her goblin form. She is a skinny, green skinned goblin with darker hair. Caleb has blue eyes, and dark-red hair. Both of them look melancholic. Next illustration is of Nott, still in her goblin form kissing Yeza, a tan skinned halfling with bushy dark brown hair. Nott is in her yellow dress and has braids. Last picture is of Nott, using disguise self to make herself look like her real form, a chubby halfling woman. She is kneeling in front of Luc, her halfling son. He has tan skin, curly hair, and a frog toy in his pocket. end id]
One thing that gets lost in ship discourse (or its hyper-positive opposite) is that regardless of your feelings on a ship, in order to tell a story, the character relationships do and should have an impact on a character's story arc, and not all relationships are going to offer the same emotional weight throughout any given character's story.
This is particularly true of actual play, wherein each player character is running a separate story as a protagonist, and therefore you have to consider each of them as an individual thread within one larger narrative, on top of the narrative itself.
That being said, the farther you get into the story and the closer to the end you are, the ways those threads can interweave get culled, simply by circumstances. Relationships (platonic, romantic, familial, etc) change over time, and whether they are narratively compelling changes as well. In contrast, "ship" is generally used to suggest a dynamic an individual audience member finds compelling, which may or may not have anything to do with the narrative, even if the dynamic is interesting for reasons of narrative potential (that isn't ultimately explored within canon). These are distinct concepts in terms of analysis. So as a disclaimer, this post is about character relationships within the narrative as it exists—essentially, what makes the story that exists work as well as it does, in the end.
Now that we've got all that out of the way, let's talk about Caleb.
Caleb's problem for much of the campaign is one of survival and self-preservation. His goal is simply to last long enough to find a way to go back in time. Because that is a very open goal, it doesn't inherently have much to tie him to another character in a relationship sense. He is not looking for that, he does not see himself as worthy of it, and it's really not a necessary narrative question, regardless of what attraction he does have.
But over time (and, I would argue, in a way that is fairly singular among the Nein, but I won't get into that here), his priorities begin to shift. Many of his needs are now met in ways that they previously weren't, allowing him to fully consider what he wants. For instance, between the start of the war and the time they reach Xhorhas, he has changed his mind about becoming involved in this war—because he is not being forced into it by possible conscription. He has significantly more options than he did at the start.
What he ends up realizing, as he finds the opportunity to put an end to the war, is that he cannot trust his own judgment. There is near universal support to end the war—even the nations involved are there because of what they view as existential threats. That opinion is not in question. But everything else is. Caleb is a victim of manipulation and brainwashing, and this is very apparent when he starts pleading with the scourger prisoner of war to give him some kind of proof that people like him can change.
And this is not something that anyone else of the Nein can offer him. They can tell him that they think he is a good person and that they trust him, but because of his history—and because he knows how smart he is, and how far he can fall—this isn't something he can take at face value, especially given that they have not seen or known him at his worst, and have not experienced it either.
Yasha may be able to offer some guidance in that area, but she is working through similar issues at both a different pace and in different ways than he is—she isn't seeking any situation where she would make potentially world-shaping decisions or have influence over others like he would. His goals are singularly risky. Veth comes closest to this, in that she very briefly considers prolonging the war to alleviate her own suffering, but it's not a decision she's ever forced to make.
(Honestly, thinking about this, an arc in which Veth does take that deal with Isharnai is a fascinating alternative universe to consider—it would certainly give her the opportunity to relate to Caleb in this way, but it would probably take another fifty episodes before Caleb could even bring himself to consider forgiving her, given it would be in direct conflict to the one thing he's been working at for a third of the campaign up until then. Still, a fascinating consideration!)
So between Caleb attempting to sway the scourger and going to Astrid's house in secret, this is the point at which it seems like the Nein cannot help him do the rest of the work. They have done a lot to get him here and considering what else he wants! But they can't offer him what that is, which is essentially tangible corroboration of what they've already offered.
And at this point in the campaign when taken as a whole, there's only one character who can actually offer that. Because to have real emotional weight, what Caleb is looking for is someone who is as smart as he has, who has made a similarly horrific decision even in spite of that intelligence, and who has now committed to actual change.
It's the commitment to actual change that is difficult, because it requires a support structure—and in hindsight, there's not enough time left to build that up for someone like Astrid or Eadwulf, but it's already partially in place for Essek.
(We can debate all day long about what could've been different if the hiatus never happened, or the campaign had lasted longer, but this is specifically about the campaign that we have. I think there is also an argument to be made that Astrid or Eadwulf would've required a much longer and more intensive timeframe to reach that point even if the campaign had continued than the format really offered, because they have preconceived notions about Caleb that complicates their ability to take what he says at face value even if they care about him succeeding in his goals—but that's also not relevant to this point.)
But I do think this is why Essek progresses very quickly, and is largely committed to aiding them by 124—he already has been aiding them, and has expressed loyalty to them above anyone else.
This is not as much of a leap as it may appear to some, because even by 91 and 97, he had done significant introspection on his own time. This is only a continuation of how he has been characterized thus far. He's expressed doubt from a very early point, whereas Astrid does not begin to express doubt (regardless of whether she feels it, because this is about capacity for willing admittance) until after the dinner with Trent.
What ends up happening is that Essek's the one who actually calls Caleb on things. He gives him an ultimatum with the conversation about Trent when the Nein won't. He offers reason and perspective in the paper room when the rest of the Nein get impatient. He checks off all of the boxes of what Caleb is looking for (which is essentially a narrative mirror), and very early into the Nein's trip through Aeor, Caleb seems to have forgiven him, and his fears and misgivings erode from there.
Only this corroboration, because his opinion of Essek is specifically about his opinion of his own capacity for change, allows him to recognize that returning to the past would simply make him the same person he had been at 17, and finally put that plan, the person that he was, and his parents to rest. If he is not able to be anything other than that boy, then he has no reason to not remain as such, and return to the past; but if he believes himself capable of change, then the question of going back in time is one of leaving behind the person he is now in favor of the boy who made that choice. He is asked, if he believes himself capable of change, to acknowledge that he was that person once, but can now be more than that and move beyond it.
And the proof that he needs in order to affirm that when he is given the opportunity to do so is standing next to him.
Fundamentally, this is not related to Caleb's long-term relationship with Essek at all. This could have been the end of it—they could've parted ways and the story would've still been told and completed.
But I think it is important that a) Essek does get to have some happiness, and b) part of that is with Caleb (though this still doesn't have any bearing on platonic vs romantic, only that they have some kind of close mutual relationship in the long run). On a very basic level, because he is now in this position of being corroborating evidence for Caleb himself, Essek becomes a stand-in for how the narrative sees Caleb, and how Caleb views himself.
If the narrative condemns him and leaves him out to dry, it is an implicit reflection on Caleb—and directly conflicts with the narrative implication that Caleb is not solely worth condemnation. And however much it has nothing to do with romance or a relationship of that kind, Caleb's choice to care about him in the long run is an acknowledgement of being willing to care for and forgive himself.
Yes it was indeed me who did the character art for the liveshow in Berlin, thank you everyone who recognized me and who sent such kind words my way! 🫶 I hope to post all the art once the episode is released properly to the public and I'm given the OK! <3
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Rewatching episode 3, where Hal and Shadia show Thaisha around the Hallowed Round, and had some feelings about this. Like, this has clearly been a long, long conversation between these two. They must have had discussions and arguments about it for many years. Hell, I‘d bet Thaisha was the first person Hal ever told about this dream of his.
And now, after all those talks, they made it to opening night and their daughter is up on stage performing as a revolutionary. Their daughter, who they‘ve raised to honour her people and her history, to follow the Old Path and respect the Fair Folk. Thaisha - who Brennan refers to as high priestess of this ritual - is here to guide the dead down the Path. The play is the ritual and the paints built the bridge, but without a druid of the Old Path, the spirits would have nowhere to go. Thaisha is talking to and calming down the spirits while Hal does the same with his actors. Hal tricked the Creed to make this possible, and Thaisha heads up to confront the luxes to protect the ritual. All the time Hal put in researching, writing, rehearsing, building this space and his theatre company. All the time Thaisha spent travelling, fighting to heal barrowdells, giving rites to the dead and offering blessings to the living. All the time they both spent raising and teaching Shadia, who now works her own magic on the world. They spent so much of their lives apart, doing what they believe in. Sometimes it may have felt like they were on entirely different paths, but all of that helped bring them to this moment. Because they have the exact same calling in life.
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I swear etiquette for live show spoilers used to be putting anything specific or major under a read more even with extensive tagging. Especially since people not going to the show are NOT necessarily going to remember when it is or when it starts with regard to time zones in order to blacklist tags in time. How did this erode so drastically that you can just stumble across whole major spoilers on the dash by accident.
the craziest thing to come out of the Lore Keepers' Ledger so far is learning that Campaign 4 is entirely hand-mixed (shoutout to Chris Wilmott, their sound mixer)
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[ID: A digital illustration of Wicander Halovar from Critical Role. His head is turned to the left, there is blood spray around his eye over his filament tattoos and across his mantle. Wick's expression is one of horror. End description.]
