Thoughts on The Mighty Nein S1? - Lemmy.World
Last episode of the season came out early, FYI. Think I’m a day late in fact.
Never watched the Critical Role campaigns myself, just watched most of Vox Mach
and now this. (No spoilers for S2 if you’ve watched the campaign I’m presuming
this is based off of, please.) *** Overall I’d say that while many of my
opinions are mixed I still really enjoyed it. (Keep that in mind as you continue
if you loved it, I dig into it a fair bit. But it was a good ride.) I’d say I
liked this more than what I’ve seen of Vox Machina, the characters had greater
nuance. Albeit they had a formulaic feel to them. Each has a specific kind of
conflict within themselves and a disadvantage of some type to overcome. (Like a
phobia.) It makes for good characterization but they all have “one of each”
which makes them a bit too much of the same for me. I like variation in that
regard. Particularly when they’re all models of comparison to the others it
starts to get a bit obvious and as I said, formulaic. Characters don’t need a
predetermined conflict for character-development. As if the GM gave them
character notes they had to fill in, rather than making a character themselves.
*** Animation was at times stellar and gorgeous, but there were some
inconsistencies. The sickle moon having stars in its dark portion in one scene,
then being portrayed as a full sphere with no stars visible in it in another is
a notable example. (Something I’ve learned to keep an eye out for in general
when gauging animated shows. Sort of an easy “litmus test”.) *** Some of the
voice acting, particularly outside the main cast was amazing. I couldn’t tell
who many of them were. Mark Strong in particular didn’t sound like Mark Strong
at all to me. Had no clue Felicia Day was in there either until I looked it up.
Nathan Fillion however, was immediately recognizable lol. So was Ming-Na Wen.
Felt like a missed opportunity for them to get a bit out-there, oh well. The
party VAs did a pretty good job but there were definitely some, “I am listening
to Slightly-Not-Vox-Machina” moments as well. Still, very good voice acting in
there. Nott notably. *** Speaking of Nott, Nott (no comma) the Brave was my
favourite by a considerable margin, really loved her. Great character,
phenomenal voice acting. And I liked the duo of Caleb/Bren and Nott’s
friendship. She was a real highlight of the show for me. *** Bren as a character
was alright but only alright. His involvement as a bit of a backbone to the
story was more interesting than his characterization to me though. Voice acting
was good but not great. (Meant literally, it was good. It just didn’t hit
“greatness” to me like Nott’s did. But entirely alright.) Thought I’d add here
that I found his Volstrucker friends/former-lovers Astrid and Eadwulf great
secondary antagonists. They did a lot using fairly little. Weren’t over-the-top
evil, having some shades of grey to them. As an example, I appreciated that they
gave a quick shot of Astrid taking Beauregard’s flirtatious compliments to heart
in the last ep. Their characters could’ve been considerably shallower. ***
Fjord, kind of “meh” towards his characterization with his weird
squiggly-eyed-Cthulhu providing most of the interest. Didn’t have many feelings
towards the early Fjord+Jester romance either. *** Jester: infectious optimism
was nice but a bit too much at times. Traveler mystery was okay as an idea but I
mean, she got her powers from somewhere, no? The “imaginary friend” bit felt a
tad forced at times as a result. Jester’s literal “leap of faith” in the last ep
was great though. *** The Tiefling Circus performer (of apparently many names)
Molly, fun character but having no memory felt a bit too “hand-wavy” at times.
Nice tool to use for the GM but, eh… not my personal cup of tea in a character.
Still curious to see where it goes. Liked him as a character though, it should
be said. (Aside from the macguffin.) *** Beauregard: Eh, not much to say here
really. Alright, moved the plot forward a couple times earlier on. Just, pretty
basic. Not bad, but not much to say. /shrug *** Essek and Orphan Maker, both
kinda weak to me. Essek, mommy issues. Meh. Sad you had to kill her, bit odd you
had to in the first place. Hoping for more next season but as it stands, low
expectations. Orphan Maker. More curious about the god/being behind her than the
character herself so far. *** S1 as a whole, pretty good. Mind, I’m a bit
disinterested in the Beacon as this end-all-be-all overpowered contrivance.
Hoping there is indeed more to it than seems. Bit of allusion that it could be
so, we’ll see? I thought the Beacon was actually a fake in the last ep there.
The one in the glass Nott melted I mean. I noticed it was in a glass-housing
instead of on that elaborate tri-bar pedestal and got pretty suspicious that
Ikithon had made a dupe. (Until he ordered his Volstrucker duo to capture it.
Then when Orphan-maker got zapped it seemed pretty obvious it’s the real deal.)
Glad there seems to be an S2 slated albeit doesn’t seem confirmed yet? Quite the
bloody cliffhanger. *** You?
