The Mighty Nein is Amazon Prime’s adaptation of Critical Role’s second Dungeons & Dragons campaign, which goes by the same name. Amazon Prime and Critical Role have come together to present to us what some might even call an entirely new story!
I’m excited to bring to you an episode-by-episode review, and even a season one finale prediction! And of course, before moving any further, please beware:
SPOILERS AHEAD!
I will be tying connections between the two, pointing out differences, and making educated predictions as we go. As for differences and easter eggs, though, I’ll only be pointing out the major ones because if I pointed out all that I could find, we’d be here for days!
Episode One: Mote of Possibility
Episode one is packed with action, adventure, backstory, and an introduction to the dark themes of the series! We start off with a scene that long time viewers of the Live Show will recognize as the heist of the Luxon Beacon! This heist was talked about quite a bit at the table. It is a major part of this campaign’s story and getting to see it in action was amazing!
Caleb
The episode also introduces us to our ‘trash wizard’ MC: Caleb Widogast. We’re shown just how poor and lost for magic he is in his introduction. We grow to pity him as he feels so solemn. This only worsens when his pouch of spell components is stolen by Nott the Brave (no comma). This isn’t actually how the two originally met: In the Live Show. The two actually grew to adventure together after they assisted one another during a jail break!
Beauregard
We also get to meet everyone’s favorite member of the Cobalt Soul: Beauregard Lionette! Beau has had a massive rewrite in the animated series:
For one, in the original she actually fled the Cobalt Soul before she met the party. She also didn’t meet Dairon until over a hundred hours in! She also didn’t become entwined with any Volstruckers until AFTER she met Caleb.
Conclusion
Overall, the first episode is an amazing introduction to three stunning main characters! Each seem to have a ton of fun rewrites for the big screen! Oh, I should probably also mention the 30 seconds of screen time we get of Yasha, but I’ll save that for later 😉.
Episode Two: Who Will You Be?
Episode two brings us two fan favorite main characters: Fjord Stone and Jester Lavorre!
Fjord
Of the main cast, Fjord seems the least changed. He is a man of the sea and was Second Mate to Captain Vandran, of Tide’s Breath. After Fjord’s ship exploded, however, all logic said he’d bleed out and drown at sea! Instead, he was saved by the captain’s blade. Or at least the entity piloting it…
The Love Birds
After Fjord makes it into Nicodranas, he meets the happy-go-lucky, bright blue, tiefling with an Eastern European-ish accent, Jester, as she’s being chased by guards! This is the first big change I noticed in the episode. In the Live Show, Jester and Fjord mentioned that they had actually known each other before Fjord’s ship exploded.
Episode two is yet another amazing episode that sets us up for success, but episodes 3-5 are the highlight of the season!
Episode Three: The Fletching & Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities
Episode three is where we get to see the disaster at The Fletching & Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities.
Mollymauk
The start of this episode introduces Mollymauk Tealeaf: a purple tiefling man with red eyes, mysterious tattoos, and an all-around boisterous personality! Here is where we learn that Molly is a showrunner at the carnival alongside the ringleader, Gustav. Molly, at this point, isn’t wielding his signature scimitars, but instead they are part of Gustav’s wardrobe!
Major Differences!
A lot of stuff was shuffled around to get all the party members to the carnival at once, without needing the classic D&D story of, “you all meet in a tavern,” which is exactly what happened in the original!
- Lumino Beetles, Dead Eye, and Beau’s message stone never existed.
- Beau was traveling with Fjord and Jester for weeks before the circus.
- Yasha was actually a bodyguard for the circus and was close friends with Molly.
- The Devil Toad is a permanent member of the carnival.
- And Gustav never even dies in the original!
Episode Four: The Mighty Nein
Episode Four is when we finally get to meet– THE SENSUAL SEVEN! At least according to Jester.
The Jail Break
Starting off the episode with a jail break is different from the Live Show, but in an amazing way! It forces hardheaded characters like Beau and Caleb to work together. Also, the joint goal of killing the Devil Toad to prove their innocence is a fun way to force conversation and partnership amongst the unlikely! During the jailbreak, however, Caleb is forced to leave his amulet behind. This amulet isn’t lost in the Live Show until more than halfway through the campaign!
The Luxon Beacon
We also get to see bits and pieces of Essek and Trent utilizing the Luxon Beacon and experimenting with it. We begin to see Essek regret the betrayal of his people, which is also something we don’t even learn about until over 300 hours into the Live Show!
Conclusion
I’ll just wrap up this episode by saying just how much I loved this one! Realistically, I could see you starting the show here and still having a fantastic time. You’d definitely get lost on a couple plot points later on, but if I had to pick an episode that gives a great taste of every character (except Yasha) it’s this one!
Episode Five: Little Spark
Caleb gets a major spotlight this episode, and next to Molly, he is one of my favorite characters!
Caleb
We get to see Caleb and his partners become Volstruckers under the tutelage of Trent Ikithon and go on missions. As the episode goes on, we start to understand the brainwashing and the manipulation by Trent affecting Caleb… His final task from Trent is a burden that puts into perspective why Caleb has felt so solemn this season. Caleb is the murderer to his own family…
In the Live Show, Trent actually implanted Caleb with false memories that motivated him to kill his family. The animated series instead chooses to let Caleb make that choice with pure brainwashing. This is a bold choice, but one that I LOVE.
The Parent and The Story
Every Critter is aware of Nott and Caleb’s parent-child dynamic, and the classic ‘I’m the parent, and he’s my child,’ speech is one that hit really hard and is done so much justice in the animated series!
And last, but not least, episode five ends with Caleb sitting down with the party and saying,
“Let me tell you a story.”
A reflection of the Live Play, episode 18, in which Caleb does the same.
Episode Six: Many Gifts
Episode six begins with a spotlight on the lovely Orphan Maker: Yasha Nysoorin!
Yasha
She’s had some major rewrites, too! Yasha was actually originally a bodyguard for the circus that Molly was a part o,f and had nothing to do with the Luxon Beacon!
The Beacon seems to be her main driving goal. She also seems to be controlled by a mark on the back of her neck. At the beginning of the Live Show, Yasha was actually free from her controllers already, so something tells me that the final episode will actually help achieve that, and she’ll end up joining the party in Zadash!
Lucien(?)
Also, in episode six, we get to meet The Gentleman, and Kree, who refers to Molly as Lucien and Nonagon. Now, for those unaware, Molly actually has lost his memories, and Molly is his new chosen name!
Conclusion
This episode is a great one, but it isn’t nearly as good as the previous two. We get to see some great foreshadowing with Yasha and learn a bit about our new pal ‘Lucien’. We also get to see more bits and pieces of Trent using the Luxon Beacon and being discovered as a traitor!
Episode Seven: Belonging
Episode seven brings us all new angles and combos of our cast of main characters!
New Pairings
We get to see Caleb meet his old friends: Astrid and Eadwulf again, but they let him go, telling him that they, “owe him one.” This never happened in the original.
We also get to see Fjord have a vision of his patron, followed by him being saved by Beau, which also didn’t happen in the original.
And we see Molly find a shrine to… himself? This section is very brief but teases a lot of major plot-relevant info for later: once again, didn’t happen in the original.
The Plan
Our party of brash adventurers finally meets up at the end of the episode, agreeing to steal the Beacon (a mission they declined at the beginning of the episode). This leads me to believe that the final episode will be their heist of the Luxon Beacon.
Essek
Also, this episode, Essek is forced to kill his mother, and betrays his best friend. This sets up major backstory for Essek. The Bright Queen also mentions to Essek that it is his job to lead a team into the empire to steal back the Beacon. What a coincidence!
Finale Prediction: The Zadash Job
Episode eight of The Mighty Nein has been set up perfectly by the previous episode!
The Wrench!
Essek and the Kryn Dynasty are planning to steal the Beacon, just like the party!
In the Live Show, episode 13, the party is escaping from chaos in the sewers when they are attacked by a warrior of the Kryn Dynasty who has the Beacon in hand. The party takes down the warrior, gains some relevant information through interrogation, and actually lets him go with the Beacon! Now the party lets the Beacon go in the Live Show because it has no priority to them yet (unlike in the animated show).
My Prediction
I believe that the finale will consist of the party and Essek’s team making their individual plans to steal the Beacon. Essek and his team will initially succeed and escape into the sewers. Here, the party will intervene, and a battle will ensue.
At this point in the Live Show, we see very little of Yasha as Ashley’s attendance is pretty sporadic. She’s actually not present for the episode I’m referencing. My guess is, however, that during the confrontation of Essek’s team and The Mighty Nein over the Beacon, Yasha will also show up, somehow assist the party in their endeavors and the newfound group of seven likely takes Essek in their escape for later questioning.
However, I could also see the season ending with some big reveal regarding ‘Lucien’, or Mollymauk as we know him. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I’m pretty sure Molly is going to be the main character of season two, thus I wouldn’t be surprised if the episode ended on a teaser for him.
The Live Show vs. The Animated Series: Conclusion
All in all, a TON is different from the source material, but every change is creative, and most definitely made for TV. It truly feels like the makers of The Mighty Nein learned a ton from The Legends of Vox Machina and ultimately decided that the format for a D&D show is very different from standard TV shows.
So much is adapted to make every character feel individually motivated to progress the plot. We get to see so much behind the scenes of the characters in play that we never did in the Live Show like Essek and Trent.
I know I’ve rambled quite a lot, but let me leave you with this:
The animated series is a must-watch! And the Live Show is only for the die-hard fans. It’s a lot of hours of what might feel like filler content, but it’s all enjoyable. I would recommend listening to it like a podcast and keeping an open mind if you’re not a big D&D fan. It took me nearly two years to catch up with myself. It is definitely an undertaking, but it is definitely worth it.
