The Legend of Vox Machina - Season 1 - TV Review

Dungeons and Dragons is kind of an anomaly. Originally created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974, it has grown into a global phenomenon through the creative stories, characters, and the sense of adventure it brings people. Ever since coming it out has massive changed a lot of pop culture through the imagination of countless players. From tabletop to cosplaying, DnD has taken over the world in a wondrous way. A few years ago a group of these DnD players decided to turn one of their campaigns into a TV show after years of work it has finally been released. Welcome to The Legend of Vox Machina.

This show is based on the Vox Machina campaign created by Matthew Mercer, Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O'Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham. All of them reprise their roles (with Matt playing multiple characters (big and small) since he was the dungeon master) in a visual retelling of their first campaign for their Dnd web series, Critical Role. In season one, Vex'ahlia "Vex" Vessar (Laura Bailey), the half elf ranger; Vax'ildan "Vax" Vessar (Liam O'Brian), Vex's rouge brother; Pike Trickfoot (Ashley Johnson), a gnome cleric; Scanlan Shorthalt (Sam Riegal), a gnome bard; Keyleth of the Air Ashari (Marisha Ray), a half-elf druid; Grog Strongjaw (Travis Willingham), a goliath barbarian; and Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III (Taliesin Jaffe), the gunslinging human, make up the adventuring party of Vox Machina. After a small adventure with a dragon, they are all thrown into a dangerous conflict with some people from Percy's past. Soon all of them must fight for their lives against a threat that could bring ruin to the world of Exandria.

I am definitely one of the newer people to join the Critical Role fandom, as the group have recently started on their 3rd campaign, almost 10 years since the web series started. Diving into the fandon I've found this to be a whole lot bigger than I was expecting. I knew it was big, but I didn't know that people like Khary Payton (Teen Titans and The Walking Dead), Vin Diesel (Fast and the Furious), and Ashley Burch (Borderlands) have been on the series as well. That, along with all the lore that's been made from these adventures and the merchandise being sold, have brought me to a whole new world of entertainment. So when I started to watch The Legends of Vox Machina was so happy to see that the show was full of what I've seen Critters (fans of Critical Role) want. This will mean though that my experience with the Vox Machina will be mostly from research, not direct viewing, since I don't have the time to watch all of the original campaign. Also, there might be spoilers.

The key element that makes The Legend of Vox Machina such a wonderful show is the characters. The titular characters of this campaign are insanely well developed, each with plenty of characters traits that make them stand out. They all also have wonderful chemistry with one another, especially since their original "players" are reprising their roles for the show. Vex and Vax get along, but also bicker with one another like real a brother and sister, Scanlan is continually horny and not afraid to be himself, Keyleth is an outsider to most others and does her best to fit in while trying to figure out who she is, Percy is the "straight man" of the team, and Pike and Grog have a great friendship that can clearly be seen has be built through years together. All of them bring something new to the story and all of them have a certain charm to their characters. I wish I could fully sell how awesome all of these characters were, but this is one of those rare times where I can't find any words that give justice to the cast of Vox Machina.

The other performances of the show are also very well done. Lord Silas Briarwood (Matthew Mercer) and Lady Delilah Briarwood (Grey Griffin) are fantastic antagonists for Vox Machina. Powerful, cunning, ruthless, and stealing the spotlight when they were on screen! They keep going after the group to stop them from foiling their plans and damn are they scary. Quickly after being introduced to them I began to love hating them because they are just such dark villains. Yet there is a lot more to them that what's on the surface. Khary Payton, David Tenant, and Sunil Malhotra were also excellent in their smaller roles, bringing some interesting and fun characters to the story. The cast felt pretty small actually, mostly because the story focused so much on the title group. But there was definitely no half-assed performances from these people either.

I'm going to go on a small tangent right here and talk about characters creation with Grog because it really shows in his writing. When you create a DnD character you role a few dice multiple times and add up the numbers. You take these combined numbers and put them into the six character traits a DnD character has. When creating Grog, Travis Willinham's lowest number was a 6, which he put into intelligence since the character is a barbarian (therefore thinks with his muscles). If the lowest number that can be obtained this method is a 3 and the highest an 18, Grog is basically an idiot. Looking a clips from the web series, I learned that Grog's favorite color is six. Six?! That's not a color, that's a number! This type of character development and creation can create some amazing new characters and interactions with one another

A lot of this "character" be seen in the party's first scene in the show. It's a usual start to any adventure: Drinking in a tavern. The drinking game all of them are having together soon becomes a full on brawl with the other bar patrons and we see all of Vox Machina display some of their characters before, during, and after the fight. Even while drunk and fighting we see moments like Vax stealing pouches of money during the fight, Keyleth getting completely plastered after one ale and later trying to avoid combat and instead incapacitating enemies with her magic, Grog just straight up smashing things with his muscles and accidentally crushes Percy, and Scanlan in another room getting it on with a woman. This isn't a boring cast of characters who are out to do good because being good is good, these are people with vibrant personalities, backstories, goals, and interactions with their allies, enemies, and random people. They want are definitely more on the side of right than wrong, but they're all definitely up for doing whatever they want for shits and giggles.

This could be a problem for people who have less knowledge and experience with Dungeons and Dragons. Some of these people will question some of the writing decisions in the story and character motivations. I get that, I really do. But going through some of the original campaign I see the writing is trying hard to keep things in tone for the audience while also honoring in the original campaign with plenty of easter eggs. For examples, in the original campaign, doors were a continual problem for the group because very often they rolled low numbers on opening/ getting past doors, so doors became kind of a meme and annoyance for the party. The show has moments with these door scenerios and they add a lot of pizazz to the story and writing. Another example of this is a moment where the party have to defeat monsters that have a weakness to light. One of these moments in the original story had Keyleth launching literal phalluses made of sunlight at said enemies and as awesome as that sounds, it wouldn't go well with a wider audience and would make a very serious moment feel very silly. Thankfully the replacement for that moment was just as epic.

The internet is full of people who love to nitpick and I get that. I know there are people who will watch Vox Machina and think, "Why couldn't they have done it like that? It would be easier." I saw a few scenes like that myself. But with how the characters were introduced at the start I found myself thinking more, "How are these characters going to solve this problem," and less, "Who did the writers write out this scene?" With how likeable and unique the main cast was I really wanted to get into their heads and think how they would understand and solve their situations. That, along with trying to follow the successful and unsuccessful actions the original campaign had, made this feel like the story wasn't written in a room with a bunch of people, but more made up on the fly, which a Dungeons and Dragons campaign both is and isn't. The dungeon master prepares a story beforehand, but the players' actions change the story and the dungeon master has to have planned ahead for each and every action. That's what makes this TV show so good; the writing feels both prepared, but also being made up on the spot, just like a real fantasy adventure.

There is another big problem though with the show and it's the animation. It's not bad, not bad at all. But that's in terms of 2D animation. The 3D animation is so noticeable I thought I was watching something from 2010. It didn't blend with the 2D environments, characters, and effects. This is being distributed on Amazon Prime, they have and are definitely capable of to do better than this! I also found multiple moments where the animation (2D and 3D) had a noticeable error in it. Even people who aren't animation experts could notice some of these problems and that's... that is bad. There were also a few moments characters just stood completely still while others were talking, but I'm chalking up to the animation style the show went with. Despite these problems though I did really like the animation of Vox Machina. Titmouse really went hard with the expressions on character's faces and the action sequences. They were expertly done with tons of movement, weight in blows, exciting effects, and really good tension. It just needs more refining in the next season because what we got, while a good start, needs major improvements.

Now I got to make this next part crystal clear: The Legends of Vox Machina is ABSOLUTELY NOT for children. Critical Role is for at least older teens and so is the show. We got nudity, swears, blood and guts coming out of people, and some really fucked up shit. The web series was made for the main audience of DnD: Older, more mature people, so we're getting exactly that. People get smashed into flesh pudding, have their insides torn out, body parts chopped and shot off, heads violently twisted 180 degrees, and much, much more. And the animation doesn't hide this from the audience, we see this stuff clearly happen it's so fun and gruesome to watch. That, along with the occasional nudity, really sells adult rating The Legend of Vox Machina earns.

Yet the show also does great with comedy, using the main characters to create some hilarious moments. A great example of the show's comedy is a scene where Grog and Scanlan are trying to tail somebody and to blend in with random people Grog picks up a barrel of ale is chugs it while Scanlan is hiding inside. After the man their tracking passes by Grog lets out a massive burp that could probably be heard through half the city, but just before the man they're following turns around to see them, both roll behind a cart and the man, seeing nothing, goes on his merry way. Humor like that, along with some of the naughtier comedy, is amazing. And there is a great balance between these jokes and the serious moments of the show.

There is one problem I do have with the writing however. This problem could also be related to pacing, but the first two episodes of season one, while there there to set up our main characters characters, feels... out of place and with a lack of punch to it. There are a number of story elements that feel cliche (in a bad way) that make this smaller story not feel not as well written as the main story. I worry lower quality at the start could turn people off before they get into really good stuff starting in episode three. That doesn't mean the first two episodes of the show are bad, they're pretty good, with the second one having a lot of great moments in it, but there is something off about them that I worry could harm newcomer's first times into Critical Role and their stories.

The Legend of Vox Machina had some fantastic moments to it, but also has a lot to improve on. It's characters are some of the best I've seen in animation, with outstanding personality and character traits. It has some great 2D animation, but at times can feel stiff and needs better 3D animation. The writing might be odd to some, but it highly honors what roleplaying and Dungeons and Dragons is all about while keeping to the tone of the show. There is a lot to love about The Legend of Vox Machina and I can't wait for season two, but when it comes out I hope to see the shows technical problems fixed or at least improved on. If you're up to experience a new kind of adventure, this is the show for you~

Tentative Score: 8/10

Also, I didn't mention it because they don't have a major role this season, but Vex and Vax also have a pet bear named Trinket. I better see more of Trinket in the next season. In addition, I'd like to thank youtuber, Sadknight, in their videos explaining the spells, abilities, and other actions portrayed throughout the first season. It really show how much DnD got into its creation. Those videos are excellent for people who want a more visual representation of how to play characters in Dungeons and Dragons.