Reviews

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Mollymauk Tealeaf by Taliesin Jaffe, Matthew Mercer, Jody Houser, Hunter Severn Bonyun

Only show reviews with written explanations

danilanglie's review against another edition

3.0

This one was nothing special, but it didn't really make me mad either? It was... fine. All the super interesting parts of Molly as a character are the things that happen when he's not even Molly. Sorry, but I've never been the biggest fan of this character; not, again, to say that I have anything against him, but I just didn't quite see the hype!

Some of the things I wasn't so fond of in this comic... the character design for Lestera and Gustav had them both be SO skeletal in build, it was a little uncomfortable. At first when I saw Molly's build I was concerned, but I figured he'd just dug himself up from his own grave, so it made a certain amount of sense that he be malnourished. But then Lestera is pretty over the top in how thin she is too, it was almost awkward to look at.

On the flip side of that, I found the pacing of this story a little strange, like, why not make the whole story about Lestera and the tarot cards and learning the trade, why not have her directly tied into the adventure the whole way through, and then end with her death as a capstone? Instead, the book was split into strange segments that sort of mimicked a D&D story I guess, except this isn't something that was played out in actual sessions at the table, so why have it be paced this way?

To stop complaining, I did love the design of the tarot cards and the way they framed the pages so we got to see the various themes explored. I really liked Yasha turning up and feeling "empty", and how Molly got to flip things around and be the welcoming committee for her, the way the carnival was for him when he first emerged into his new life. The flower imagery around Yasha is quite lovely, and it's sweet to see these characters form their bond.

And I thought the whole plot around saving a town from a con artist was fun, it had some Robin Hood vibes, or just noble-thief vibes, which is such a fun part of what Molly might have been as a character with a bit more time to grow on CR. The pacing was a little strange in that it felt like a tacked on extra adventure to close out the comic, but I did like watching it play out.

So yeah! Not a ton to say about this one. A nice little curio for my shelf.