Critical Role surprised its fans with non-stop news during San Diego Comic-Con 2025, with confirmation of the fifth and final season of The Legend of Vox Machina, as well as brand new clips. But what got me most excited was the reveal of their newest upcoming Prime Video show, based on Critical Role’s second campaign, The Mighty Nein. This show has a chance to improve a great romance between two characters that was hindered by real-life circumstances.
As expected, the whole cast of Critical Role will be picking up the mantle once more as their characters from the second campaign. Ashley Johnson (The Last of Us) as Yasha Nydoorin, Laura Bailey (The Last of Us: Part II) as Jester Lavorre, Liam O’Brien (Marvel’s Avengers) as Caleb Widogast, Taliesin Jaffe (World of Warcraft) as Mollymauk ‘Molly’ Tealeaf’, Sam Riegel (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) as Nott the Brave, Travis Willingham (Marvel’s Avengers) as Fjord, and Marisha Ray (Fallout 76) as Beauregard “Beau” Lionett. This includes Matthew Mercer (Baldur’s Gate 3), Dungeon Master and co-founder of the multimedia corporation, voicing Essek Thelyss.
While the Legend of Vox Machina can get plenty dark, the second campaign goes even further. If you enjoy the grit, the grim, and the grisly, you’ll most likely adore what The Mighty Nein has in store.
Romance is hard to avoid in Critical Role, and while it doesn’t take up the entire story, love as a concept is one of the core tenets that make up the web series and its animated counterparts. In the Vox Machina campaign, there’s Keyleth and Vax, Vex and Percy, Pike and Scanlan, and more. While the original campaign had plenty of lovely moments, the animated adaptation allowed viewers to see, visually, how that romance played out in ways that an actual play campaign simply couldn’t. All in all, it added to the romantic pairings of Critical Role, for the better. The second campaign features just as many – if not more – romantic endeavours than the first. One such romance is between Ashley Johnson’s Yasha Nydoorin and Marisha Ray’s Beauregard “Beau” Lionett. While it’s arguably one of the most beautiful pairings of Critical Role, I think that if there’s a romance that needs more filling out the second time around, it’s this one.
[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for Critical Role campaigns 2 and 3.]
The sparks of romance between the two women start pretty early within the second campaign, with Beau established as a bit of a womanizer who enjoys the game of flirting with anyone who catches her eye. Yasha is a ridiculously tall Aasimar with muscles and abs for days, so, of course, who wouldn’t attempt a casual flirt? It works out for Beau; she isn’t brushed off, but as with all Critical Role characters, both Beau and Yasha have plenty of baggage to unpack before they can even begin to think of romance in any shape or form. Cue the slow-burn romance that took over 100+ episodes to culminate officially.
However, while fans of ‘Beauyasha’ were overjoyed when the pair went on a date together in episode 120, this was undeniably one of the clunkier romances of Critical Role. This, ultimately, wasn’t because of anything that happened in the campaign. Johnson was busy filming NBC’s series Blindspot in New York, while Critical Role’s campaigns are filmed in Los Angeles. Because of Johnson’s commitments, fellow co-founder and cast member Travis Willingham often had to step in to take charge of Yasha instead. While Willingham did his best, the result was a romance that felt disjointed and never quite reached the epic highs of romance arcs experienced by other characters, such as Fjord and Jester in campaign 2 or Imogen and Laudna in campaign 3, Bells Hells.
That’s not to say that Beau and Yasha’s romance wasn’t sweet or meaningful. Unfortunately, it just felt awkward to watch at times because, as much as I’m sure Johnson trusted Willingham to make decisions for her character, it still didn’t feel as though we were experiencing the romance the way it was intended to be.
Luckily, the animated series The Mighty Nein has the chance to rectify this by simply having both Ray and Johnson there and in control of how the relationship plays out in this animated adaptation. Of course, much like how they handled Pike (who Johnson also played and was absent for at times) in The Legend of Vox Machina, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Yasha will be there for everything that Johnson was absent for. Meaningful narrative adjustments, however, will help viewers relate and root for that character and her relationships.
For example, the date scene between Beau and Yasha is terrific. Still, it comes after a not-too-short period where Beau was seriously crushing on Bailey’s character, the cutest blue tiefling in the world, Jester. While I don’t think that should be rewritten, the potential of Beau having more scenes with Yasha to sell the romance is something I am excited to see play out. Thankfully, I won’t have to wait long, as The Mighty Nein premieres on Nov. 19 exclusively on Prime Video.
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