The Mighty Nein: Mote of Possibility

Saved your life just to box you to death.

Critical Roll's newest animated series gets dropped on Prime. Should you watch? JRS digs into the meat of the episode.

The opening episode of The Mighty Nein does its best to introduce us to the world of the series. I have had zero experience with this world, its races, or its politics, nor do I know if it has been explored in other spaces. I’ve watched and loved Vox Machina, and I appreciate how Critical Roll approaches storytelling and animation. Coming off of Vox Machina, which was a fairly complex and well-realized world, I have to say this: this is a really, really, REALLY complex world with a huge cast fueled by serious star power. If you’re someone who needs everything explained up front, this may not be the series for you. If you’re someone who can live with some confusion, however – and you need an injection of Vox Machina style fantasy – this is a lot of fun to watch.

The opening act of Episode One is a perfect example, giving us an in-depth look into one of the most private rituals of the Kryn, one of the main races/nations in the story. A man with a presumably dying wife, kills his wife, watching a magical beacon collect her spirit, murmuring that he looks forward to seeing her in his next life, and that he will wait for her. As poignant and horrifying as this moment is, it’s just the beginning; immediately, alarms sound and it turns out the whole location is under attack, and it quickly becomes clear that the beacon is the target. It’s stolen by invisible and impossibly magical assassins, who take the beacon nearby – only to find it difficult to control; it bursts with some sort of energy which leaves a very visible mark on both the people and the land around it.

Our mysterious assassins, Eadwulf, Astrid and Dain.

Enter Beauregard, one of the heroes of this campaign. Beau is a gifted young fighter and detective who just can’t stop running her mouth when she thinks someone is stupid. A member of the Cobalt Soul, a group of fighting monks, she’s trying to figure out what happened with the beacon. After her boss, Zeenoth (voiced by Jonathan Frakes!) gets a bad report of her work, she tells him what she really saw – including showing him a mysterious green crystal that seems to have some connection to the assassin-thieves who stole the Beacon. With this, we seem to begin to dive into the politics of the area; it turns out Zeenoth is a spy for another organization, a sort of fantasy version of Star Trek’s Section 31 named the Volstrucker. Beau gets attacked by one of them and is left for dead, and rescued by another monk, Dairon. Dairon seems to know the most about Beau and her life – she wants to do righteous stuff, and she has had conflict with her family. There seems to be a lot of potential for this character, and Dairon thinks she can find the truth behind the relationship between the Cobalt Soul, its spies, and the Volstrucker.

We also meet a young man, Caleb, who appears to be poor and homeless and struggling with street rats. After scaring them off with some surprising dexterity, he tries and somewhat winningly fails to break into a local shop. In the process he meets a young, and very clearly alcoholic, goblin named Nott the Brave who immediately steals his personal things and runs. Caleb is able to catch up and beg for his items back – with a sincerity that both interests and concerns me. Nott, who underneath the bravado of a thief hides some sort of soft spot, offers to help facilitate the break in in exchange for booze. (This show is definitely not a kid’s cartoon!) I liked this pairing – and the characters seem a little more complex than the others; Nott’s addiction is clear to anyone who looks and it seems like this will be a major point for the series, and the contradiction of Caleb's poverty and sincerity, when combined with his dexterity and fixed but unclear mission, seems like fertile soil for future episodes.

This first episode introduces us to three fascinating characters in the middle of a complex political situation; I haven’t even mentioned the human Dwendalian King and his advisors, who have a ton of text and subtext, and the Kryn Queen. It’s unclear whether these will become major characters, but there is a battle of wills happening on each side and it seems clear that the main characters are going to be trapped in whatever web gets woven. And then there’s Ikithon. Ikithon seems to be the King’s Archmage, but also seems to be related the Volstrucker, as they are seen reporting to him, and almost seems to be a third faction entirely at this point. He comes across as horribly and coldly evil, the surgery scene grossed me out, but still without context it seems almost performative. Even Morgoth, from the Lord of the Rings, has a history, and I hope future episodes have one for Ikithon. He does show something like mercy at the end of the episode, for one of the Volstrucker.

While I enjoyed the episode, I have to admit it feels somewhat weirdly paced, a little too slow and a little too fast at the same time. I don’t know whether or why I should care about any of the characters, yet, and if I’m really honest I have no idea who the good guys really are. Regardless, I’m somewhat invested already in Caleb and Nott. Beau seems somewhat one-sided, and Fjord too, but at the other end of the scale. I’m hoping future episodes flesh them out a little; knowing Critical Role, however, I have some faith that’ll happen.

Mighty Funny

When Beau is hunting Zeenoth, she meets an elderly shopkeeper. I don't know why, but I found this moment entertaining as heck.

Caleb and Nott breaking into the magical pet store, and the owner getting attacked by his own pets, is hilarious – and sets the scene for future dangerous animals in the series. This is NOT a safe world!

Following up on that, the moment where Nott sees her reflection in the store is truly poignant though it has no words. Immediately after that, however, she’s attacked by a random Magical Pet. If this is going to be the tone for the rest of the series, I’m here for it.

Rolling the Dice

This episode gets 7 out of 10 for me. I liked so much of it; we’re thrown into the story, however, and while I’m going to keep watching, I’m definitely scrambling to understand the world of the Mighty Nein and its people.