a spell of hubris

👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️

(That last scene….. what do you mean i gotta wait another week now??!)

Wizard parallels:

Essek destroying the mini beacon, his life's purpose, the proof he's been desperately searching for, the reason for every selfish action he's ever done. Destroying it in a spell aided by his equal, the symbol of everything he wants desperately to become. To save the lives of his friends. His family.

Caleb destroying his Transmuter Stone, the culmination of his entire arcane knowledge, the object he can use to destroy and selfishly defend himself, the tangible symbol of who he is as a Wizard. Giving it up to heal a friend, using it to heal instead of destroy, to bring back the man who gave him purpose. Saying "All of this knowledge, all I have been focused on and driven for and pushing towards, means nothing without my friends."

Yess we love us a narrative foil.

So… that happened…

You better watch out 👁️

These man made horrors are beyond YOUR comprehension. I get it though.

What if the death card hand twitch wasn’t because of Molly, what if it was because Lucien planned to kill the somnovum, but hadn’t told anyone, and here are his old cards coming to tell him so.  

The tyrant pull for him makes EVEN MORE sense now too!!!

welcome to the main event

now that a majority of the m9 have eyes, they should all telepathically get into luciens head at the same time to drive him insane

It’s the final battle, and in sync, all of the party with eyes start shouting ‘Do do do do do’ in their heads. Lucien, just stands there staring

Lucien may be immune to Psychic damage, but he sure as hell ain’t immune to the mental toll of the Mighty Nein

IM SO GLAD HES SAFE but holy SHIT was this visual cool

Does Extort Truth work on tentacle monsters? 

the one where fjord casts counterspell, yasha steps on cree's cape, yanks her back, and impales her with a sword from behind.

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Lucien is really the perfect villain to oppose the Mighty Nein. He’s the exact opposite of everything they stand for.

“The only choice we’ve consistently made is to take care of our friends” vs. Lucien letting the Nein kill three of his followers so he and Cree could get a head start running for the somnovum

The Nein knowing it’ll slow them down but stopping to save Yussa anyway because he’s there friend and he needs their help vs. Lucien hearing Cree call for his help and instead turning her into a horrifying flesh monster to buy him more time

The Mighty Nein befriending nearly every wandering misfit they come across and initiating them into their family, helping and protecting each other and making each other stronger vs. Lucien using everyone who cared about him to get to his end goal and using his god-like powers to destroy and usurp the very people who gave him those powers.

The Mighty Nein - a family of outcasts who found a home in each other, who now have friends all over Exandria that they’re fighting to protect vs. Lucien - powerful and alone, fighting only for himself and his own desire for power.

what were the somnovem names again?

i do like that caleb was the one pushing hardest to save yussa, though

both because a) he was drop-dead terrified of yussa when they first met and this is a lovely demonstration of his growth

and b) because i am now picturing caleb with a checklist of Wizards to Save From Their Own Bad Decisions and is just going along ticking off boxes lmao

all of you are correct

The best part about Lucien as a complete villain is that this arc has been Wizard Hubris all the way down, from Aeor to the Somnovem to Vess, and Lucien is like "I'm not like the wizards" when he is in fact extremely like the worst aspects of all of the wizards.

@ everyone making the "I'm not like other girls...I'm worse" joke, love the energy, love the vibe, but the whole point is that Lucien has literally no self-awareness about this. The statement ends at "I'm not like other girls." Our heroic wizards, Caleb and Essek, at least know this is their fatal flaw and are trying to curb their worst impulses even though they don't always succeed, but Lucien is just like "all of these idiots think they have all of the answers, but they don't. I do though."

Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun...