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Monday Movie Star Musings

Warning: this one is going to get very serious. I have some thoughts and feelings about the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial. If the subject matter is triggering for you, please take care of yourself. I promise the next one will be light and fun.

I will begin this week by saying I do not normally follow celebrity news, but I’ve been a huge fan of Johnny Depp since I can remember being a fan of anything. I also have a lot of heated feelings regarding the details of this case. With that in mind, buckle in, folks. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

Our story begins with the #MeToo movement and an op-ed. In ye olden times before a hashtag started a movement, women generally kept silent because 1) no one would listen, so why bother? And 2) worst case scenario it could jeopardize their careers, especially in the entertainment industry. Just look at how many women came forward in the Harvey Weinstein case and said they feared he would blacklist them. The #MeToo movement was a good thing. I’m glad we listen to women tell their stories. I also wish we didn’t stop there.

The catchphrase became “believe all women” when it should have been “believe all victims”. Not only does the latter include nonbinary people, it also allows that men can be victims too. Enter the current trial.

When Heard first accused Depp of abuse it wasn’t the full and immediate cancellation of his career we probably would have seen if it happened today. But after the UK trial went in her favor, his career did take a more noticeable hit. The big thing I will highlight is his removal from the Fantastic Beasts franchise. (Really that whole franchise and JKR should be canceled, but that’s an article for a different day). I admittedly don’t have an exact timeline, although there are plenty of other articles who will gladly give you the deets. I do know that at the time Warner Brothers let him go it had become public knowledge that he claimed she had committed abuses towards him.

Whether or not he is guilty is not the subject of this article or my place to decide. Where I’m going with this is that it is unfair for him to be let go based on her accusations but her career continues to thrive despite similar allegations against her. WB just recently said they were “reducing her screentime” in the upcoming Aquaman 2. Reduced screentime is not the same as being let go. If the precedent is an accusation gets you fired, then fire her. Either recast her or remove the character from the film. Yes, it would complicate and delay the film, but make the tough choice. Show men who are victims of abuse that they’ll be believed too. Because everyone who is in a toxic and dangerous relationship should be able to come forward and find help in their time of need.

I hope this trial doesn’t discourage others from coming forward with their own stories. If you’re in a dangerous relationship, there are people who will help. This has been an extreme and public case, but that doesn’t mean it always has to be. Don’t be scared to stand up for yourself when your physical or mental well-being is at risk.

Thank you for allowing me a moment to focus on such a serious topic. I try to be a source of entertainment, but some things are too important to stay silent. We’ll return next week with a music review. It’ll be just like the good old days. Until then: stay safe, take your meds, and don’t forget to hydrate.

Doctor Strange: Musings of the Multiverse

This should go without saying, but this will have lots of spoilers for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. You have been warned!

I know a lot of people who have some opinions about the new Doctor Strange movie, but I am here to tell you I loved it. At first I was concerned about how short the runtime was, but they managed to pack a lot into those two hours. I think my only complaint is you kinda get thrown right into things, but it’s a very minor complaint that I’m not all that mad about. Otherwise it was a great story with a rollercoaster of emotions. I wish Wanda/Scarlet Witch wasn’t the main antagonist and/or that her story didn’t end the way it did, but we’ll get there.

Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff in Marvel Studios’ DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

First of all, with how quickly and often Dr Strange was asked “are you happy?” I knew that was going to come into play at some point in the movie. For a second when he and the Christine from the other universe (sorry I cannot remember numbers other than we are confirmed 616) were talking about “I wish you could see where I’m from, it’s beautiful” that one of them would be going with the other, but Strange knows he has more work to do, and I think he’s become content with that by the end of the movie.

Now about that other universe Christine was from – I (and a good portion of the theater) cheered seeing the Illuminati slowly introduce themselves. In a few short moments we got to see Black Bolt, Captain Marvel, Captain Carter, Reed Richards, and Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Professor Charles Xavier with the classic 90s X-Men theme playing during his entrance. My nerd heart sings!

If that weren’t good enough, we also got to see Clea make an appearance during the after credits scene, teasing a visit to the Dark Dimension? I’m really looking forward to seeing where the universe takes Strange, especially if it lets him move on from Christine and we see him and Clea more.

Now let’s talk about Sam Raimi. He’s one of my favorite directors of all time. If you never saw Evil Dead, do yourself a favor and fix that right now.

Go on. I’ll wait.

Seriously though, there were quite a few moments where Raimi’s signature really shined through. The best examples are the cameos – Bruce Campbell as Pizza Poppa and The Classic (the Oldsmobile Delta that is in almost every movie of his). It’s become a game with me to spot the car as an easter egg. And of course it’s fun seeing Bruce Campbell pop up in random small roles. Almost like back in the old Marvels days where we’d wait to see where Stan Lee would appear.

Finally, let’s talk about the actual story. We got a look at how Wanda is coping after the events of WandaVision. (Spoiler: she’s doing poorly). I’m happy she’s got a moment of clarity and redemption, but I have mixed feelings about her final moments in the movie. It’s poetic to see the space we mistook for a tomb become her actual tomb, but I also would rather see her get to move on and be happy rather than sacrifice herself to protect the world from her potential for chaos and catastrophe. And yes, people have pointed out to me that we never saw a body so she might not be dead, but it felt like her story was concluding there.

Overall I continue to be excited about what the MCU potentially has coming up. My big question after the movie ended was the potential for a Young Avengers in our future. I originally figured Wanda’s kids would be involved. True, the multiverse versions of them exist, but how much are they going to be featured versus our universe? I guess that’s something else I’m curious about is how much we’ll be visiting other universes now that we confirmed their existence. That is one way we might see Wanda again. I think we’re definitely going to see more of America Chavez, and her power is teleporting amongst the universes. Whatever happens, I’m excited for the MCU to get weird and make some bold choices in the future.

What about you? What are you most excited about? Is it the Fantastic Four becoming part of our universe finally? Or maybe getting to finally add some mutants to the mix? Let me know in the comments below.

Is Network TV Dead?

It’s that time of year, where you find out which of your favorite shows have been axed. This isn’t strictly a network tv thing, but I do feel like it’s less common (or at least more spread out) with streaming services. Don’t get me wrong, I will never forgive Netflix for axing Cowboy Bebop after only one season, but CW has really freed up my tv-watching schedule for next season, It had already canceled Batwoman (which was not a huge surprise) and Legends of Tomorrow (which was much more of a shock), but last night they announced, among other thing, Naomi and the Charmed reboot have both been canceled as well. Add to that Supergirl and Arrow both having left their lineup (although at least they got proper series finales), and that leaves Flash and Superman & Lois are the only things left I still watch of theirs. I *did* see a Supernatural prequel and Gotham Knights series both got picked up for next season, so I might give those a try with my newly found free time, but I’m also kinda hesitant to get too attached to new things, Naomi only got one season before being canceled, so what’s to say these will do any better.

This leads me to the question, “Is network tv dead?”

I’m not sure I have an answer just yet. This is definitely the biggest clearing of the board I’ve seen a network do that I can recall. And other than the CW superhero stuff, the only thing I watch on “traditional” television is the newly resurrected Law & Order, and Walking Dead with its many spin-offs.. (Side bar: L&O has done a very good job figuring out what to be, with the changing attitude of the police in today’s society.) Most of my tv viewing comes from the many streaming services out there, including all the Marvel stuff on Disney Plus and Star Trek things on Paramount+. I’ve only seen Picard so far, but I’m planning on binging Discovery next.

What about you? Are you watching anything good on cable? Or does your time strictly go towards streaming services? Let me know in the comments so we can chat.

Monday Musings: Welcome Back Munchkin

Hi fam! You may have noticed I’ve been pretty absent the past few months. I had a lot of plans for this year, but then quickly approached burnout and had to take a break. I was going to have YouTube focus on game reviews and my 100 book reading challenge. I was going to collaborate with friends on Twitch, start a Storyteller Saturday series, and continue my canon DA run with my favorite game in the series – Dragon Age 2. Instead I dropped off the internet to focus on getting through a pretty hectic work schedule while still dealing with health stuff.

You may also be aware that here in the U S of A we’re facing some pretty dark times. I was originally going to break my hiatus for Pride, but I’m coming back early to do some fundraising relevant to the pending Supreme Court ruling. I’m also going to try to bring back Monday Musings, and even try to not make every one of them be about politics. I wanna focus on the good in an otherwise dreary timeline.

So here’s the plan: the Dragon Age VODs I still owe you are getting edited and thrown on YouTube (one is all ready and releasing tomorrow), and I’m starting streaming again Wednesday. I had a poll going with two options and a third that said “why not both?”. Of course the chaos gremlins who follow me voted for that, so we will be splitting our time with an old classic – Civ V – and a new game to the lineup: Dorfromantik. That’s gonna start at 4pm my time. And I’ll be aiming to stream at least once a week, although not always the same day.

The only way we survive is together. I’ll see you around the internet.

New Year, New Chaos!

Happy new year, everyone!

It’s that time where we set goals for ourselves that we may or may not reach. This year I have a few new things I’m excited about here at Camp Chaos. The biggest thing is my reading challenge. Every year I slowly have increased my reading goals, and I’m finally making an attempt at 100 books in a year. I plan on documenting this on the YouTubes, although I may also share some notes here on the blog.

“What counts as a ‘book’?” you might ask.

For the purposes of this, I am counting pretty much anything I can mark on Goodreads. That means books, graphic novels, and single issue comics are all fair game. In the past I did not count single issues, but I’m realizing how many hours I collectively spend reading them, and it’s keeping me from reading more long form content. First up has been Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin, a book that has been sitting on my shelf since I ordered it when it first came out. I’m about 60% of the way done with it as of the time I’m recording this. It’s been a good read but dense at times, so I have been going at a slower pace than I originally anticipated. I’ll catch back up on my goal the first day I sit for an hour or two catching up on comics, though.

In addition to my reading challenge, I also have some new and exciting things coming to the Twitch channel. The first thing is the introduction of Storyteller Saturday, which will be premiering this Saturday at 2pm ET. I have a bunch of visual novels and other story heavy games I’d like to share with you over the course of the year. First up is First Bite, a very thirsty game revolving around three vampires whose lair we discover. (I say that, but there are routes you can take that are not overtly sexual, which I like to see more games giving that as an option.)

The other big goal I have this year is I want to collaborate with more of my twitch friends. This will include discussion type streams where we talk about some of our favorite topics, as well as some multiplayer shenanigans. First of these streams will be later in the month, when I dive into some Dragon Age Inquisition multiplayer with a group of friends I will announce at a later date.

I’m trying a lot of new things this year that I’m rally excited about. Some of them might not last the whole year, others might. You never know what you’re capable of until you try though, right?

What are some of your goals for the new year? Have any collaborative streams you’d like to see? Visual novels you’d like me to tackle? Let me know in the comments.

MCU First Time View

I’ve noticed now that we’re well into the MCU, many people like to recommend to first time viewers that they watch the films in timeline order – meaning start with Captain America, then Captain Marvel, and so on and so forth. Normally I’m not one to gatekeep or tell others how to consume media, but in the following essay I will tell you why this opinion is WRONG and ruins the experience. (Everything that follows is my opinion, so calm down. Also, there be lots of spoilers ahead. Consider yourself warned.)

First, let’s focus on the after credits scenes. Each one gives a hint at either the next movie or the next big team-up event. If you watch the movies out of order, the after credits scenes become confusing and irrelevant to new viewers. Let’s focus on the first phase. Each after credits scene showed Nick Fury basically assembling the Avengers. Throwing Captain Marvel in the middle of this disrupts the flow of things. It also brings me to my next point, which is specifically regarding Captain Marvel.

If you recall, CM was released in between Infinity War and Endgame. Yes, it takes place well before either, but watching in release order it plays out thusly: End of Infinity War, as everything is falling apart (in some ways literally) you see Nick Fury with the beeper that is supposed to signal to our girl Carol that there’s big trouble – her kind of trouble. We then flashback to see her whole backstory and how she and Fury met, then move onto Engame, where you anticipate when she will show up to save the day. Now, if you instead watch it after Captain America, you get no context or connection to her story, and then have to wait a very long time before you see her again, at which point you’ve probably forgotten she even existed. You’re completely underwhelmed by her movie, whereas some of us anxiously awaited her arrival because of a dang beeper. (As a side note, I’d love to do a poll broken down by gender and enjoyment of that film, because I suspect another big part of it is that I, as a woman, was very excited for myself and a bunch of young girls who had someone to look up to who looked like them.)

My final point regards the general flow of things. Everything in the MCU was constantly building and getting bigger until we hit the big culmination of 10 years of work: Endgame. Changing the order of things changes the flow. We started with a handful of smaller solo movies and built to the formation of the Avengers. The next phase builds a little more, and a little more, until we get a giant teamup event where the fate of everything is at stake. I can’t imagine what changing the order of movies does to that.

In conclusion, I’m all for doing a chronological rewatch after you’ve experienced the MCU for the first time as intended, but please stop recommending to all your friends that that be their starting point. I’m usually very chill about these things, but I will die on this hill.

Thus concludes another Monday Musings. Next week we’ll go back to gushing about Dragon Age, and looking ahead to Dragon Age Day 2021.

Monday Musings: Mass Effect Andromeda First Play Feels

I feel like Andromeda took a very long time to finish and simultaneously was way too short. Overall I loved it way more than the fandom as a whole seems to, but I am disappointed it’s not getting any DLC content or the other games that were planned in the series. I loved my Ryder (who I made super punk and romanced Peebee with) and I loved my companions and I want more time with everyone. I loved the nods we got to the trilogy, like Kandros name dropping his sister Nireen and the correspondence Liara sends our dad. I’m hoping since Liara seems to be the focus of the next game and she does have a very long life span that somehow we can use her to connect all the games and find out where some of the loose threads were leading. I wanna know what happens to our mom and who the secret partner was in the initiative. It’s disappointing we won’t get to see what they originally planned, but I’m still looking forward to replaying this one a bunch and smooching all our friends who will let us.

Up next: I think I’m finally going to play some of the Final Fantasy series. I’m also in the middle of a renegade run for the ME trilogy. And of course on stream you can watch me weave my canon world state as we anxiously wait for DA4 to be released.

Critical Role Finale Feels

This should go without saying, but warning there will be spoilers for the finale of campaign 2. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. And with that….

*screams in Shadowgast and demi*

Ahem. Right then. Getting ahead of myself.

There’s a lot to go over in the 7 hour long finale, but I’m mostly just really excited that everyone got a happy ending, especially a certain wizard boy I was very much routing for. Let’s break it down.

Fjord + Jester – There were so many good moments between them in this one. Jester nervously saying “I love you” and wishing she could take it back, then going to her dad for advice. Fjord setting up that romantic moment in the rain to say it back. The two of them hitting the high seas together. I am very happy they got their happy ending, and hope to see one of their adventures in a comic or some other form one day.

(Side note – I was also happy to see the Parent Trap worked and Marion and The Gentleman were at least testing the waters to see what they could make work. Jester deserves to see her parents happy.)

Beau + Yasha – Beau got some closure regarding her dad and ended up being more respected than he in the end. Meanwhile, Yasha got some closure of her own, revisiting her tribe and being able to properly say goodbye to Zuala. They both rode off into the sunset together and got their happy ending as well. Not much to say there other than “I’m happy for them”.

Cad and Veth both went back to their families and also lived happy lives. I love the idea of Veth starting an adventuring camp for little ones, like her son Luc.

Molly, I’m sorry, Kingsley, got to live the pirate life he missed and discover who he was. I wasn’t sure how I felt about him being a blank slate, but he turned it into an opportunity instead of a reason to mourn. I love the idea of him becoming king of the seas and living his best life.

And then there was Caleb. Of all the ships that potentially could sail, his with Essek was always the longshot for me. I hoped with all my might, but also understood that Caleb and Essek both individually had to work on themselves first. I was so happy to see them both accept that you cannot change the past, only learn from it. I was also very proud of Caleb that he didn’t try to alter himself to live a longer life with Essek. I know a lot of fans wanted it, but it would’ve negated the lessons Calab had learned about bending time and space to suit his needs. He accepted that he needed to live the life he was given and enjoy the moments as they came. I’m very proud of him. I also know there were some who wanted a more explicit showing of affection between them, but again, I think the way Liam and Matt presented it was perfect. At the end of the day all I wanted was for them to be together and happy, and they were. There was also some talk on twitter about Essek being demi which is how I identify so it felt very good to be validated in this way.

I know I was very slow to warm up to this campaign, largely because of my attachment to VM, but also because it just wasn’t the type of story I usually connect with at first. The Might Nein did eventually hit those “found family” feels though, and I was especially validated seeing a wide variety of relationships presented in the end. We had MLM/Demi love, WLM, and a more “traditional” straight couple. Plus some Ace rep from Cad! And of course the group will always stay in touch despite going their separate ways. I can only imagine the future sending messages Jester has for them all.

Thank you Matt and company for giving us these characters and making us feel all of the feels. Let’s do it again sometime.

Shadowgast

I have a big long post on the finale that is going up on Monday, but the twitter discourse on one thing in particular has me needing to get some thoughts and feelings out. (Side note: Twitter is a terrible place to attempt to have meaningful conversations about sexuality.) Spoilers for the CR campaign 2 finale will follow.

I’ve seen some critiques about how Caleb and Essek’s relationship was presented during the finale that range from polite disappointment to borderline acephobic. Let’s get into it.

The big issue seems to be that it was “ambiguous” if they were in a relationship or just friends. I have some thoughts on this. While I understand not loving the use of the word “friendship,” Caleb also said something along the lines of “I spend the rest of my days with him, if he’ll have me” which to me screams relationship. I get that MLM relationships are often presented poorly, but in a live play TTRPG nothing is planned out. Their feelings were never verbalized because it never came up. But every forehead touch or kiss on the cheek was a sign of affection, at least the way I saw it. And Liam even said on an episode of Talks Machina that Caleb was attracted to Essek but needed to focus on fixing himself first. I get the argument “if you need to clarify outside of the media then you didn’t do it right” but that applies to tv and movies, not a live action roleplay show that is not scripted. I’m sorry if anyone wanted to actually hear the words “I love you” come out of their mouths. At the point their relationship starts, they are two broken people who probably start off slow and build trust over time. Also keep in mind that they were at the end of a 7 hour session. Sorry if they were a little tired (physically and emotionally) and maybe didn’t words good.

The other thing that really got to me is the amount of entitlement some of the fandom has shown when it comes to the stories Critical Role has presented us, especially when it comes to relationships. I don’t want to generalize that the whole fandom has been awful, but there’s definitely been more than a few bad beans crying they didn’t get what they wanted and tweeting at Matt and Liam they didn’t do it right. These are their characters. This is their story. It is not your place to tell them how to play their characters. One day they are going to decide this isn’t enjoyable anymore and take this beautiful world away from us, and we will 100% deserve it.

I will close by saying, this bi demi girl felt so seen by this couple, and y’all almost had me in tears last night. I went from crying happy tears about demi rep to almost crying actual sad tears because I felt invalidated. We need to be better about politely asking for certain stories and rep without invalidating the relationships and stories we did get. Remember there are actual people behind the screens you’re yelling at. And especially remember what these nerdy voice actors tell us every week:

Don’t forget to love each other.

Welcome to the Mighty Nein

Monday I mentioned some of my favorite moments from campaign 2 and that one in particular I would do a bonus piece on, so here we go. The following will have spoilers for C2 Ep 97 which was their C2E2 episode. It has only been slightly altered from its original text, which was written the day after the episode aired.

This episode of Critical Role had lots of laughs and two heart-felt moments and ended almost 3am local time so I had no time to process anything, especially THAT LAST SCENE.

Let’s start with how we got to the scene in question. Between high insight and some smart thinking from Liam, we get Frumpkin spying on “Lord Thane” and discovering he is really Essek in disguise. He’s got some secret dealings with the Martinet. Say what?? That reveal by itself had me reeling. I knew there was probably more than straight up BETRAYAL but was still shocked that Essek was the mole this whole time. I wasn’t sure if we’d get more of an explanation during the party, but I loved Jester’s plan to message Essek while around “Lord Thane”. You know what they say about the best made plans of the Mighty Nein though….

Everything falls apart thanks to Veth slipping Thane a paralyzer in his drink, but the Nein does a surprisingly good job of rolling with it and not drawing too much attention. And that brings us to the final scene for the night, where all the cards are on the table.

This scene hit me in the feels in so many different ways. When Essek first starts talking, Matt does such a great job conveying emotion between the visible slump and inflection in his voice. Essek looks so deflated in these first moments that I immediately felt sorry for him. Caleb calling him “friend” when asking what he’s doing digs the knife in my heart a little deeper. You can hear it in his voice that Caleb is clearly hurt by this betrayal. Again, another beautiful bit of acting from these people.

Everyone pitches in to drive the scene forward in their own unique way. Jester and Caleb do most of the heavy lifting asking the most questions, and add a mix of tension and levity by injecting their personalities into their tone. Caduceus helps with a bit of insight on his part during a moment where Essek pauses by saying, “If he says it out loud he’s not going to like who he is”. Way to break both Essek and the entire audience with that one.

With that little push, Essek breaks down The Plan. He gave two beacons to the Assembly, for research purposes from what I gathered. When the Mighty Nein shows up to return one of the beacons, he decides he needs to keep an eye on them and oopsie daisy ended up liking them. He repeatedly says this is “Not part of the plan” and you can tell by the way he says it that he generally feels bad. Notice how I’m focusing on story here instead of acting choices? That’s because at this point I’m so immersed I can barely remember this is a bit of theater we’re watching. Nope, these people are real and I am very invested in their problems and what happens next.

I’m also going to pause for a moment to say that as he’s describing why he first started keeping tabs on the Nein is when I realize how much I’ve fallen in love with Jester in recent episodes with one single response.

Essek: I needed to make sure you didn’t get too close.

Jester (singing): backfired

Me: Goddamn do I love her ❤️

Essek goes on to essentially say he already told them what his goals were, he just didn’t reveal until now how far he’d gone to achieve them. Caleb drops to his knees to force Essek to look him in the eye. This is the part I am obsessed with and probably will still be thinking about for a long time. I noticed the similarities in what Essek had been saying about himself and Caleb’s past, and apparently Caleb did too. Caleb was like Essek, but friendship changed him. “These people changed me,” he says earnestly. There are too many good lines from this speech to repeat them all. Liam is such a good actor, and it really came shining out in this scene. At this moment I notice all sound has been sucked out of the room. I almost forgot it was a live show, it was so quiet. It erupts in cheers as Caleb concludes his speech by kissing Essek between the eyes and saying, “Maybe you and I are both damned. But we can choose to do something and leave it better than it was before.”

I’m not crying, you’re crying 😭

Essek was a loner. He never had to worry about anyone he cared about getting hurt. Now he has this group of friends that clearly care about him and he cares about them and feels terribly they are now in danger because of his actions.

As they move on to the resolution of this scene, it is revealed that there is no espionage plan regarding the beacon or the meeting. Those involved are just trying to put the pieces back together. You can hear the relief in Essek’s voice as he realizes the M9 are going to follow the plan and not snitch on him.

As Veth mentions how much she’d like to be able to use this to get the others involved in trouble (Trent is one of the people involved and I’d also love to see him burn) I am wondering if down the road Essek will end up somehow helping Caleb in some kind of revenge or final showdown with Trent. The balance of power has definitely shifted, and Essek owes them big time for their silence.

We close with three great moments that pulled at my heartstrings even more:

Essek saying he has “far more allegiance to the Nein than to his country or any Dynasty”

More talk of them being friends. They really drove that point home because he needed to hear it, and my heart was mush by the end.

The final speech from Veth, which I took the time to copy down because I loved it so much,

“You are a broken person who had ill intentions and wandered aimlessly into a path you had no idea how to complete, and yet somehow along the way you found a heart. You sound like all of us. Welcome to the Mighty Nein.”

I close with some final thoughts. First, Caleb had the chance to take down Trent with the information Essek gave him, but he didn’t take it. He chose friendship over revenge. Everyone in the group has grown a lot over almost 100 episodes, but he has grown the most. It’s incredibly heartwarming to see this broken, shell of a man get slowly put back together again through the power of friendship. Second, I praised Liam and Matt on twitter last night, but the entire cast deserves credit for their incredible acting. A lot of emotion was packed in that final scene. It was so good that I rewatched it again this morning. I was very slow to warm to campaign two, but now that the group has grown as people and is starting to become more of a family I am fully invested in this story and cannot wait to see where it takes them next. And I especially can’t wait to see what part Essek plays in all of it. This is one of the few NPCs I have truly fallen in love with, and while there are others I like plenty well enough, after last night I would die to protect my sad drow boy who finally found his family.

Note: Future me now looks at this and smiles, because at the end of the day Essek was the only one there to help them in their final fight. He stayed true to his word that his loyalty was with them, and truly became a member of the Mighty Nein in the end. I’m sure I’ll have more to say after the finale tonight.

For now, don’t forget to love each other, and don’t worry, it’s almost Thursday.