Created By: Critical Role
Main Voice Actors: Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brein, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Travis Willingham, and Matt Mercer
Devils, Dungeons, Dragons, and other Legends of Vox Machina
[There is an explosion behind Vox Machina]
The Legend of Vox Machina “The Frigid Wastes” (Season 3,episode 5)
Vax: What are the chances that isn’t for us?
Grog: “Hm… I’d say 50/30?”
Giant Demon: “VOX MACHINA!”
Grog: “I hate math.”
The Legend of Vox Machina has come far. The first season of this Critical Role adaptation condensed dozens of adventurous hours into one manageable season. Season 2 ramped up the danger with a world-ending threat. Now our heroes must push themselves further than ever before to save the world.
Can Vox Machina season 3 match its predecessors or will it fumble? Let’s find out.
Scene Select
Cast Refresher
Percy de Rolo: An aristocratic human Gunslinger.
Vex’ahlia: A greedy Half-Elf Ranger. Vax’s sister.
Vax’ildan: A snarky Half-Elf Rogue. Vex’s brother.
Keyleth of the Air Ashari: An anxious Half-Elf Druid.
Grog Strongjaw: A dimwitted Goliath Barbarian.
Pike Trickfoot: A heroic Gnome Cleric.
Scanlan Shorthalt: A perverted Gnome Bard.
Recapping The Legend of Vox Machina
A quartet of Ancient Dragons called the Chroma Conclave destroyed the capital city Emon. Vox Machina barely escaped and began searching for The Vestiges of Divergence, the only relics that could defeat the dragons.
While gathering Vestiges, Vax became the Champion of a death goddess, Scanlan learned that he had a daughter who hated him, and Percy’s old foe Dr. Ripley resurfaced as a Conclave ally. Vox Machina killed the Black Dragon Umbrasyl, then were confronted by Green Dragon Raishan offering an alliance.
The Good
Hell is Other People
J’mon: “The Plate of the Dawnmartyr is with a demon. Zerxus Ilerez, an antiquities collector in the city of Dis.”
Prisoners of Ank-Harel” (Season 3, Episode 2)
Vax: “So if we want the Plate, we’re gonna have to go to…”
J’mon: “Hell.”
The Chroma Conclave is the biggest threat Vox Machina has ever faced. They’ll need a lot of help to slay the dragons, and maybe not only from allies.
Raishan is a treacherous, shapeshifting dragon. She wants revenge against the Conclave’s leader Thordak and offers to help Vox Machina kill him. Keylith rails against her offer because of Raishan’s own crimes, but the party reluctantly accepts a loose alliance.
The party travels to Hell to recover a Vestige and meet Zerxus Ilerez, a fallen Paladin turned devil. He challenges Pike to a card game for the Vestige and delights in undermining her faith. Zerxus is polite, cunning, and cruel. He’s also an implicit ally of the show’s overarching villain: The Whispered One.
Emon has fallen, but two members of its Council join Vox Machina as allies. Kima is a crass Paladin in love with prim Wizard Allura. They constantly bicker because both fear for their partners’ safety. Their comrade Dohla briefly joins the party as a mean-spirited parody of a former cast member.
Reign of the Dragon Emperor
Allura: “A dozen juvenile dragons wiped out Whitestone. And according to Raishan, Thordak’s nest will hatch soon. If they do-”
Siege and Silence” (Season 3, Episode 8)
Kima: “We’re fucked. In every single hole.”
Allura: “…It would be bad, yes.”
Dungeons are tricky to navigate, but Dragons are The Legend of Vox Machina’s greatest threats.
Thordak’s shadow looms over the plot. He’s nearly invincible thanks to a gem from the Elemental Plane of Fire that enchances his magic at the cost of sanity. Even worse, the gem gave him the ability to lay eggs.
Thordak’s children appear sparingly. Despite being babies, they have inherited his warped magic and are much stronger than they should be. Hundreds of eggs remain unhatched, putting the heroes in a time crunch before an unstoppable dynasty of dragons is born.
Two members of the Chroma Conclave have died and Raishan is a traitor, but Thordak has one champion left. White Dragon Vorugal can freeze anything with his icy breath and maul a Godzilla-sized demon to death. He’s not good at magic, but makes up for that by being extremely durable.
Damnation Forged in Steel
Ripley: “Your Pepperbox was a fine beginning. But imagine if there were a hundred, a thousand, more.”
“Prisoners of Anh’Harel” (Season 3, Episode 2)
Percy: “That’s chaos.”
Ripley: “That’s equality. A weapon in the hand of every farm boy, every washmaid, every downtrodden soul in this kingdom and the next! You created something revolutionary, Percy.”
The Chroma Conclave is an overwhelming threat, but sometimes less visible villains can be more dangerous.
Dr. Anna Ripley worked with the Briarwoods to overthrow Whitestone in season 1. She resurfaced in season 2 and became a partner of the Conclave to secure Vestiges for her own use. Even worse, Percy’s demonic tormentor Orthax chose her as his newest tool to claim souls.
Ripley is hunting Percy out of admiration for his gun, The Pepperbox. She wants to mass produce firearms so that the revolutionaries can kill corrupt aristocrats. Ripley and her gang are all outfitted with guns and try to kill Vox Machina out of a belief that Percy will join them if he’s alone.
The Bad
Party Politics in The Legend of Vox Machina
Keyleth: “Look at [Percy and Vex]. Acting like we don’t know.”
“Cloak and Dagger” (Season 3, Episode 7)
Grog: “Pff, yeah, right. How dumb do they think we are?”
Pike: “They’ve desecrated every room in Scanlan’s chateau! Right on the billiard table, just, like pounding it out-”
Vax: [testy] “We get it.”
The Legend of Vox Machina didn’t succeed at balancing character development with action.
Percy and Vex start dating after seasons of romantic tension. Their amorous rendezvous provides a lot of sexual humor and awkward moments for their allies, but clashes with season 3’s apocalyptic tone.
A similar romantic roadblock forms between Vax and Keyleth. They’ve also been circling around a relationship, but kept backing off because of visions of doom. Keyleth’s hatred of Raishan exacerbates the drama since Vax often argues that the dragon’s help is needed, leaving Keyleth feeling unheard.
Scanlan drew the short straw with attempts to reconcile with his daughter. Kaylie. She wants nothing to do with him after he knocked up her mother, but couldn’t even remember her name. Scanlan often tries to make up with Kaylie, but fumbles and deflects instead of opening up. It’s sad the first time, but grows obnoxious because there is no progress.
Dragon On
Grog: They’re like… babies, right?
“Thordak’s Throne” (Season 3, Episode 9)
Scanlan: Are you shitting me right now?!
Grog: I mean, maybe we wait till they’re a little older [gets punched in the crotch] Eep!
Scanlan: “Grog, these are bad eggs, you hear me?! Now make me some GODDAMNED OMLETTES!”
Downtime is an important part of any show, but The Legend of Vox Machina’s pacing suffered this season.
Once again, the party splits up to perform separate missions. The party travelling through Hell has interesting adventures while the rest are stuck hiding from Vorugal. Adding Kima, Allura, and Zexrus only increases the number of characters waiting for their spotlight.
Preparations for the war proceed at a glacial pace. Romance takes time, as do sidequests, Scanlan’s failures, and battling Ripley. Then comes the logistics of recruiting armies and formulating plans. All important, of course, but it begins to feel like padding when the party goes off on another tangent.
The final episodes fall apart. The climax happens three episodes before the season finale, then builds up another Big Bad. That villain is dispatched early in the season finale, leaving only clean-up for the remaining episode.
The Verdict
The Legend of Vox Machina picked a bad time for a slump. The new characters and gathering threats are good, but pacing took a nosedive by splitting its focus. The show is still good, but the showrunners need to refocus for the remaining two seasons.
More Legends of Vox Machina
Photo courtesy of Prime
Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.
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