Vox Machina were a family, maybe more quickly and easily than the Mighty Nein, who are slowly getting there (I think they might be there already, even if they haven’t said it out loud).īut Vox Machina were so insular with that family. I love this, and I also find this to be such an unexpected difference between the Mighty Nein and Vox Machina. It’s saying, “we’ll figure it out together.” Like the line in the Finale of Into the Woods, “you have to grope, but that’s the way you learn to cope.” They’re building this from the ground up, and they’re inviting others to do the same - to grope with them. it’s a radical openness - ironically, coming from people who, many of them, have been closed off for many years. They cannot pledge themselves to anyone else, any other group or organization, because they have already pledged themselves to each other and to that open hand. “Welcome to the Mighty Nein” isn’t just a fun catchphrase. Their number is not fixed, for their hand is always outstretched. This is also the beauty of their name: they are not nine, not because they are six, or seven, or even at one time three. They invite each other, lonely and broken children, into a space where they will be loved, however clumsily. They invite an ex-pirate and a smuggler and gather them all in. They invite a shy half-dragon girl, and a surly dwarf, and a mother searching for her son, and a tiny trickster. They invite a watchmaster, and a priest, and a child.
#Nott the brave drinking how to
To start with, I’ll focus on the “welcome.” They’re a ragtag group only just learning how to love and trust and how to be authentic. “Welcome to the Mighty Nein” is one of their catchphrases, and I think it encapsulates who they are in this way to an unintended degree. Instead, they’ve pledge themselves to each other, and in doing so, have created something entirely new. They had so many chances to throw their lot in with other groups, but they didn’t. They could’ve thrown themselves in with Avantika’s crew, or with the pirates on Darktow. They could’ve pledged themselves to the Myriad they could’ve turned the Beacon in to the Cerberus Assembly. They could’ve given their allegiances to anyone, and they’ve had many opportunities to do so, chances that we didn’t even realize they had at the time because it was never a question, really. Allegiance, loyalty, and love are funny things, and the Mighty Nein have settled on a particular path when it comes to those.