D&D 5E Vecna Pop and 2022

[Hexmage-EN]

I . . . don't think those are really equivalent. Vecna is well known primarily for his lack of a hand and eyeball. Zariel's features weren't so well known. Both are art changes, yes, but Vecna regaining his lost body pieces seems more notable, IMO.

It is interesting that he has either his original eye and hand or replacements in both the MtG card and the Pop rather than going with the earlier routes of either lacking them entirely or having ghostly replacements. Also interesting that Vecna went from a skeleton to a more complete corpse in the span from 3E to now (I guess becoming a god has its perks).

With Zariel I just find it interesting they have two radically different depictions in the same edition so close together. Part of me suspects the latter design was made with the thought in mind of her appearing in Baldur's Gate 3 (which seems likely given the game starts in Avernus, a loading screen mentions Zariel, and there's a character who served under Zariel and is being pursued by devil cultists).

Zuggtmoy also has two major variations in appearance in 5E, with her Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes design looking radically different from her Out of the Abyss art (although she has a fungal body and is a Chaotic demon so I guess she has a mutable form).

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Funko has been doing D&D Pops for a couple years now, and next February they're doing Vecna.

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Available at GameStop.

It's a very different look for Vecna, who previously appeared less... Thanos.

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He was most recently found on a Magic the Gathering token:

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There's some similarities between the MtG Vecna and the Pop Vecna, but also a lot of differences.

It's interesting that they not only chose to redesign Vecna but also opted to use him over a more featured lich, like Acererak, who is on the cover of the DMG and was featured in Tomb of Annihilation. Vecna might have won out because he was featured in Critical Role, which is somewhat popular. But redesigning him still feels like an odd move, since WotC would have supplied reference art to Funko.
Why commission new art rather than go with the MtG look?

Maybe Vecna will be featured prominently in 2022. Perhaps in the summer tentpole adventure. Or even Call of the Netherdeep.

Isn't the hand and eye of Vecna supposed to appear in the Forgotten Realms movie coming in 2023?

As for why this Vecna has his eye and hand back, in AFR the MtG set, you only really summon Vecna token when all both his eye, hand, and the book of vile darkness, so I assume giving those back to Vecna are part of the deal for his services. Vecna toke is weirdly both powerful and weak, he can be destroyed by at portable hole, but murder & damage spells won't destroy him without the Shadowspear.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I think their main selling point is that Funko can somehow get the rights to make Pops of damn near everything under the sun. If you want a collectible from some media franchise that doesn't have much in the way of merch there's probably a Pop for it.

As for the design for Vecna used for the Pop, at leas it's not as sudden and significant a departure as Zariel between Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus:


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I mean, I like the newer one better, but I wonder why there was such a radical change so quickly? She's even missing a hand now.

Are you really surprised by the retconned appearance of Zariel? WotC fired the continuity editor and didn't replace him because they stopped giving a **** if anything made sense between books.

 

[Khelon Testudo]

Are you really surprised by the retconned appearance of Zariel? WotC fired the continuity editor and didn't replace him because they stopped giving a **** if anything made sense between books.

Source?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Source?

Unfortunately I can't share that with you (because I can't remember where I found out about that, it was years ago).

 

[Seramus]

Are you really surprised by the retconned appearance of Zariel? WotC fired the continuity editor and didn't replace him because they stopped giving a **** if anything made sense between books.

Works for me. Avernus Zariel looks much more (fallen) angelic than Mordenkainen Zariel.
And by angelic, I mean similar to Devas/Planetars/Solars, etc.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

We have to remember Vecna is capable to cause troubles in all the D&D multiverse. Technically he caused the reboot from 2nd AD&D to 3rd, and even he escaped from the demiplane of Ravenloft, being (beside lord Soth) the only one dark lord who has reached by his own efforts.

We shouldn't be too surprised if he was also pulling some strings in the deathlands (Athas/Dark Sun).

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Works for me. Avernus Zariel looks much more (fallen) angelic than Mordenkainen Zariel.
And by angelic, I mean similar to Devas/Planetars/Solars, etc.

Oh I agree it's a much better art, and Zariel is a shape shifter, so in this case it's not a huge deal, but it's symbolic of their willingness to ignore their own lore, never mind other editions lore when writing books, which makes things in general too loosy goosy for my liking.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

We have to remember Vecna is capable to cause troubles in all the D&D multiverse. Technically he caused the reboot from 2nd AD&D to 3rd, and even he escaped from the demiplane of Ravenloft, being (beside lord Soth) the only one dark lord who has reached by his own efforts.

We shouldn't be too surprised if he was also pulling some strings in the deathlands (Athas/Dark Sun).

My pet theory for FR having a seperate multiverse in 3e and 3.5e is that AO was hiding Realms from Vecna's multiverse altering craziness by moving FR and it's afterlives temporarily to another multiverse of his creation.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

The weirdness with Vecna is even stranger when the character who has the Hand of Vecna in Descent into Avervus (the dragonborn Arkhan) is specifically noted to have gotten it from the world of Exandria (the setting of Critical Role). That much at least is considered canon as of that adventure, though whether the details of how Arkhan got the hand match up with what happens in Critical Role isn't specifically noted (that incarnation of Vecna had just become a god days ago).