I love love love the scene in the throne room of ep87. The nein are so intimidated, beau does SO WELL, the king and the assembly have such rancid vibes, allura is a treasure, and the nein are now Players in the political world of wildemount. The music is so good.

Caleb sweating and disassociating the whole time Bc he’s at 2 HP and completely out of spells and under the eyes of his abuser. Beau standing tall and unflinching under the scrutiny of the throne. Fucking Trent. Everyone standing in front of Caleb when Trent comes by. GOD.

Matt juggles all these characters with utter elegance. It’s incredible. What a fascinating scene with such intense tension and consequences if a single move goes wrong.

On another note: the king calls the war “unprovoked” meaning, he calls the beacon “a relic,” how much does the king know that the assembly have, in effect, provoked the war by dealing with Essek?

Also how fucking delicious is that convo between Caleb and fjord on the ship in 98 when “when you’re looking at [the assembly], we’re looking at you” Bc only Caleb knows first-hand how ruthless they are. And here he was TERRIFIED the whole time.

Also how utterly delicious that the assembly began this whole situation by dealing with Essek, and have ended it by dealing with the nein, who are also dealing with Essek. It’s like the M9 entering the political web bw these parties rebalanced the scales in a different direction

Now I’m imagining the traitor reveal scene but with ludinus seeing how much Essek means to M9, esp Caleb: “of course the traitors would find kindred spirits in each other”

Just GAH I love the fact that Trent can’t do anything to Caleb except mildly antagonize with this presence! I love how Caleb now has importance + that the ppl who need to know Recognize his former allegiance, but no one can do shit Bc he’s an independent player now, not a pawn!

I love how beau doesn’t back down! I love that she doesn’t tell what the nein did to get BQ’s trust! I love how she both aligns herself with cad (who dwendal derided) whole also making fun of him to build rapport with the CA! She’s SO GOOD at this confident journalistic analysis!

I love this shit SO MUCH. Man I want more empire shady business! I can’t wait for trent to show his cards! I can’t wait for beau to receive recognition from the CS! I can’t wait for vess de rogna to be more present in the narrative! I can’t wait for M9 to bring along Essek!

Following beau and Caleb’s ep99 needling of Lud and vess— they work together SO WELL Bc lud kinda respects Caleb (“shucking the chains of the vollstrekker”) and wants to see a fellow detached arcanist and Caleb plays that part (also speaking zemnian to derogna) and getting closer

“The empire, we all love the empire”
“To an extent” and he gives you a keen look’
is lud trying to see if Caleb truly doesn’t care? Showing that he cares for more than the politics (a la Essek, all abt research?)
Lud led the original uprising against the king 300urs ago, he gdaf

Beau hasn’t checked in with the soul in fucking ages, completely independent and now she has the info that they’ve been searching for this whole time (who caused the war) yet beau trusted him, she did (“I like him, let’s tell him secrets”) she’s the most conflicted for next steps

I can’t stop imagining Essek accompanying M9 and having a tender moment w Caleb in front of 20wis lud who sees all and thens like “oh... they care about you too....” like Caleb would not be the type to keep something he’s proud of hidden, and he’d be proud of Essek

Who else would understand but the other traitor? Who else??? Did Essek think Caleb was sent by the CA as a test? The beacon disappeared after Zadash, did Essek think they lied that they lost it, only to send this hobo to give it to the BQ? When did Essek start believing the nein?

I was thinking about beau offering Essek as an informant for the soul in order to take down the CA in exchange for, you know, them not exposing him and getting him executed. Essek working for the soul is such an interesting thing.

It has the same feeling to me as Caleb working for derogna: shouldn’t be doing this, but it might help get closer to something somewhere. I want Caleb to infiltrate the CA so bad. He speaks like them and acts like them but wears a coat from rosohna and believes in justice&good.

The fact in general that Caleb walks around SHAMLESSLY in rexxentrum as an obvious zemnian mage in xhorhassian clothes like fksvdshhwlsjd boi do u have ANY self-preservation, you’re wearing your allegiance OPENLY

ALSO 1) I always assumed the CA/king knew that M9 gave the beacon. 2) M9 didn’t answer why they were in BQ’s graces. 3) does the CA/king know why their attack on the ashkeeper garrison was thwarted? Bc the nein had scryed and given away info? The king doesn’t want ppl to die

The CA never showed that they knew that M9 had the beacon. M9 pretends they don’t know what it is (“oh...wow.....” says Caleb on the wind of eons to vess and lud). The CA don’t know that 1) M9 knows abt felderwin beacon 2) gave notes to Essek 3) who now knows the CA gave him shit

Don’t get me started on Astrid, who is a hidden player biding her time but is defo cooking something in the bg, and Trent defo cares that 1 of his pawns is independent and visible and respected, and dairon got introduced to Essek, “hello I’m searching for the mole, who are you?”

Essek probably won’t get assassinated immediately, but he can never let his guard down now, ever. EVER. Too many powerful people played him like a fiddle and have full leverage on him while he has all the blame. How does he sleep at night (in denial & w dreams of blue eyes—)

(How unfortunate, to fall in love at a time like this, but what is this weird gravity that pulls him toward this enemy wizard? A kinship? An understanding? Hello, my mirror, I’ve been so lonely this whole time, only now past numbness do I feel the ache of me searching for you?)

How does Essek feel, knowing what he always needed wasn’t knowledge, but someone to understand? To trust? How long did it take Caleb to learn the same lesson? Will Essek stay alive long enough to learn it? How do his consequences weigh, knowing love is so easy, close, and good?

Knowing this story, will he get that chance, or will the opportunity be pulled from him? His trajectory, in modern storytelling, would be of self-sacrifice or assassination, and neither would allow him to carry the weight of what he’s done and affected in this world

Anyways, Pepe Silvia, I love critical role

I can’t stop. I’ve always wanted a scene of M9 trying to intimidate the CA like “hAH the ShAdowHANd of the KRYN is our BFF!!!!!” And they would be like >:0 but now we know,,... they would absolutely not have been impressed by floaty idiot Essek thelyss

It also amazes me how little the empire truly knows about the dynasty. They don’t know shit about consecutive, dunamancy, the drow’s worship, why the Luzon matters so much. “Yeah they worship this orb” says ludinus but they don’t get why BQ cries when Caleb brought it out

And also the dynasty is so elitist and conservative! Essek basically revolts as a gifted kid who wants friends that don’t go to his parents church! BQ has reigned for 1k years! No one changes, no one leaves. Maybe the beacons disappearing was the change that the dynasty needed

I remember when we were like “oh never leave rosohna” but knowing that even our kryn bff Essek feels trapped there, that even he, that culture’s legacy student local WASP, feels alienated to the point of treason and heresy — how could that possibly be home?

But also the dynasty going on a murderous rampage over the empire.... not good. Also the BQ saw the calamity, right? She knows of the floating cities that crashed? She derides Caleb’s arcane curiosity as “the zemnian thirst” — not dwebdalian, not imperial, but zemnian

We get it, the area around rexxentrum is haunted with arcane possibility, even in its ppl, and blumenthal’s farming kids can grow up to be powerful arcanists— but what does it mean? I fully subscribe to the consecuted blumentrio theory and am eagerly awaiting jts reveal

This peace talk is a drop in the bucket, it’s 6 months of needless bloodshed that no one is happy abt doing (except maybe the BQ). Caleb looked so conflicted when hugging beau on the ship. The peace means that innocents are no longer dying on the battlefield, but in the shadows

He’s at his best when he has a goal, with veth’s spell, with the peace, with the collar. Now he’s probably gonna tru to work into the CA’s graces the same way he did the BQ, and how knows what sorts of favors he will pull from there.

I love Caleb so much. He’s completely ruthless and endlessly compassionate. He’s a Thinking > Feeling person — fully rational, with emotions as blocks within that rationality. He’s powered by love and acts with logic. His POV on the world makes so much sense to me.

Which is fascinating too Bc he’s so often misunderstood by others: everyone thinks he wants vengeance (he never did), arcane research at any cost (left halas in the ruby). M9 thought he was going evil in HFB when really he was struggling to maintain sanity while being triggered.

He cares so much. He supports jester in all her endeavors. He goes out of his way to tell fjord thank you. He creates a new spell fo veth. He buffs beau in every team-up they do. He reaches out to yasha and checks in with her. He saves as much of cads family as he can.