Review: The Mighty Nein “The Zadash Job”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Mighty Nein infiltrate Soltryce Academy to steal back The Beacon from Trent Ikithon, but it’s not long before complications arise.

OUR TAKE

With a surprise early release as a special holiday gift, we come to the end of The Mighty Nein’s first season of likely many. Apparently this season as a whole adapts the first dozen or so sessions of the campaign, which is only about half of the first arc, but the first three seasons of Vox Machina adapted around sixty sessions into about thirty episodes, AND has thirty two more sessions to turn into twenty four more episodes, so we can probably expect a lot of shortcuts and creative liberties as Mighty Nein goes through its several planned seasons. Unlike Vox Machina’s first season finale, this doesn’t end with a big villain defeat and a lead-in to the following arc, as Trent Ikithon is still very much alive and in power, but at the very least, Yasha, played by Ashley Johnson, finally joins the rest of the cast (and gets some further backstory to boot!), and the group gets a hold of the Beacon to get back to the Gentleman. Essek, meanwhile, makes his play to get the Beacon back and ends up greatly injured, as Trent discovers when he finds him under the helmet of one of the attacking Kryn soldiers. With the Beacon out of Trent’s hands, it may be possible for the Kryn to turn the tide of his war and get their holy item back, though whether that happens or not will depend on what occurs in the next season.

As for plot related developments, just about every main cast member gets a little push forward in their respective arcs. Fjord is forced to make greater use of the demonic entity giving him his magical powers, Jester finally makes contact with The Traveler, who it turns out is a real entity and not all in her head, and Molly taps into some more of his unknown abilities that may just be linked to his mysterious and unknown past. Meanwhile, Beau reveals she comes from a rich family and uses those connections to enter a gala for their plan, Nott gets over her fear of water just long enough to make that plan work, and Caleb, or rather Bren, gets to confront his old master…or at least just enough to distract him, but a proper final confrontation is likely coming. And now they also have Yasha, who will take a bit to fully fit in with her new group. But that’s the first season, a solid and very different start to an adventure than its sister show, and I very much look forward to see where it’s going. Now to look back on all of it and do a Season Review! Merry Christmas to all and may your dice rolls come up all natural twenties if you’ve been nice, and all natural ones if you’ve been naughty! Play fair and have fun!