Critical Role Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein and the Mighty Feels They Gave Me
DISCLAIMER: This will have some spoilers!
When I started watching Critical Role last year with friends, I never expected that a few episodes later I’d be hooked nor did I expect to watch the whole campaign from start to finish. I watched because I wanted to be in the company of my friends. It was a way to spend time together. But the more I got into it, the more I knew I needed to see and experience it all. So in January, when I needed something other than music to listen to while I worked, I pressed play on campaign 2 episode 1.
It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with the characters, the world-building, the magic of it all. As daunting as it seemed to watch over 100 four-hour episodes, the foundation Matt Mercer laid and his descriptions made it so easy to fall in step with the story. I do think it helped that I fully understood what I was getting into, though, since I’d started watching the later episodes as they aired. Unsurprisingly, I was immediately drawn to Jester. I wanted her to be my best friend, and I also wanted to emulate her consistently joyful view of the world. Marisha said it best in the campaign 2 wrap-up: Jester is the purest character of the M9 (far from innocent, but definitely pure). If the rest of the M9 were the planets, Jester was the sun around which they spun.
I loved all the characters, but perhaps my favorite character was Yasha. A lot of this has to do with how Ashley Johnson played Yasha. She was always calculated, putting purpose behind every action, roll, and thought. As someone who was once described as “quiet, but when you do speak, you mean it,” I felt a deep connection to Yasha. She may have taken the backseat often, but she would go to the ends of the world for her friends. And she proved this time and time again. She was clever yet kind and thoughtful beyond measure. Not to mention she packed quite the punch. I think I cried most when it came to Yasha’s story. She fought so hard to become a champion and to right the wrongs from her past, even if she didn’t remember what those wrongs were. When she visited the grave of her late wife and presented her with the book of flowers she’d picked from every stop of her journey, introducing her to Beau as well, I lost it. Her story, complicated as it may have been, was so beautiful and courageous. This was definitely highlighted by Yasha’s relationship with Beau and the future Marisha and Ashley planned for them after the campaign ended. I also have to credit Ashley and Yasha for inspiring me to play a barbarian (path of wild magic, for extra flair), which is my favorite character I’ve played thus far. Not sure I would have chosen this for myself had I not watched Critical Role.
Characters aside, the story of the Mighty Nein was incredible to watch. I loved seeing each character explore their backstory as much or as little as they wanted. I could sit for 560 more hours to watch the Mighty Nein go through every facet of their lives and turn over every stone until there was nothing left to the imagination. The political overtones of the campaign are enough to write essays on. But, to me, at the heart of the story of the Mighty Nein is family.
The Mighty Nein is a found family. No matter what happened, they held each other up. Yasha left numerous times, and they always welcomed her back (though they were uneasy about it for a while). When Molly died, they gave him a proper burial and kept his belongings so they could memorialize him. They made it their mission to leave the world better than they found it. They vowed to help Veth break her curse and get back to her family, and they fulfilled that promise. They loved each other unconditionally, as a family should.
Finishing campaign 2, I feel a sense of pride. It feels like I just watched my best friends’ dreams come true. Critical Role is an art and is theatre. The cast pours their hearts and souls into the story, and I loved seeing the resulting magic. I’m so excited to watch campaign 1, to see Vox Machina on my TV, and to witness campaign 3 unravel. It took me about 11 months to watch all of Campaign 2, and I enjoyed every single second of it (even when it made me cry). Matt, Marisha, Laura, Travis, Ashley, Liam, Sam, and Taliesin, thank you so much for Critical Role and for the Mighty Nein. Long may they reign.
And if you’d like to read my rambles, see my very long twitter thread here.
