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Admittedly, Critical Role's Liam O'Brien does tend to play the sad boi of the group, but don't mistake that as monotony. Across four core campaigns and a handful of spinoffs and one-shots, O'Brien has played some of Exandria & Aramán's most fascinating subjects; tragic, yes, but wildly ranging in their backgrounds and personalities. Recently, O'Brien spoke to this fact when he sat down to talk about a subject Critical Role forums everywhere are regularly discussing:

That is, the difference between The Legend of Vox Machina's Vax'ildan and The Mighty Nein's Caleb Widogast.

The subject came up during an interview O'Brien did with Animation World Network ahead of The Mighty Nein's premiere season debuting on Prime Video. Asked about the show's human wizard differs in his "inner turmoil" from that of the half-elf that appears on Critical Role's first animated adaptation, O'Brien had a thorough but very brief response.

"Circumstances happened to Vax," O'Brien said. "Caleb’s woes are largely on his own shoulders."

Huh. Well, there you have it, folks. An apt division if I've ever heard one.

"And truly," O'Brien continued, "When we meet him in this season, he isn’t powerful at all. If anything, he feels powerless to absolve himself of his own sins, powerless to achieve any sort of justice, and powerless to be comfortable in his own skin."

"What excited me most," the voice actor concluded, "Embarking on this longer-form, more serious-toned series, was exploring Caleb’s complicated and nuanced history and the slow, seemingly impossible journey he winds toward finding any shred of redemption. This show explores a certain level of psychological turmoil I don’t think I've seen explored too often in animation. And the show threads the needle brilliantly.

Next question, Liam, how would the pair of them act if they started dating? We'll give you a minute to answer, but know that there's plenty of fanfic you can look to for inspiration.

With two animated series on Prime Video, Campaign 4 in full swing, and so much more Exandrian lore to come, Critical Role is showing no signs of slowing down. That's why the adventuring party at Popverse are here to bring you everything we can from those nerdy-ass voice actors & Bo., including:

• Critical Role release schedule
• Critical Role's Campaign 4 characters ranked
• How to watch Critical Role in order
• Ways for you to relive the Critical Role panel from ECCC '26
• Taliesin Jaffe on playing Mollymauk Tealeaf for Campaign 2 vs. playing him for Prime Video
• Matt Mercer's homebrew warrior class (created originally for Vin Diesel)

...and much, much more. Roll initiative, player. Magic awaits.