The Legend of Vox Machina: Souls in Darkness (3x12)

As a not-so-secret Percy/Vax enjoyer, even though I do ship the canon ships more... this episode made me very happy.

Cons:

Okay, remember when I did the big paragraph in episode nine about Pike's whole deal with the Everlight? In this episode we get this line: "sometimes you should go against the wishes of your deity. After all, the gods didn't create us to blindly obey them, right?" And that sentiment is fine with me, that makes a lot of sense as a conclusion a character could come to on her faith journey. But... why did she literally throw away the Everlight symbol when facing down Thordak? That moment doesn't seem to actually lead to this one! I'm really hoping that season four can give us a bit more clarity on how we're supposed to view Pike's relationship to the Everlight. I'm fine with them making strong choices, but right now it feels kind of directionless and unspecific.

I want to reiterate that I'm sad about the Bard's Lament thing here. I still wonder what we'll see in future seasons, if some alternate version with different context will play out. But just... seeing Scanlan hugging Pike and Grog and then going off with Kaylie, everyone sad but ultimately at peace and in a good place with each other, i was just like... this is not my Fucked Up Story of Self-Destruction! I just want Scanlan to be way more of a mess. I want "what's my mother's name," and since we didn't get it here, within its original context, I wonder if we'll be getting any version of it at all! That does make me sad, even if I understand the reasoning behind it.

I liked how the Raishan fight ultimately went down but I wish they could have found some way to tie in the idea of the feeblemind - defeating Raishan by taking away her intellect, her main asset, was such a cool thematic element in the stream. I get why it would be hard to adapt, though!

A small thing, but it feels like only Vex and Vax are really grieving all that much for Percy? Like, the rest of the gang are there for the ritual, and Pike and Keyleth are helping with the magic part of it, but nobody else has had really any emotional processing time about Percy's death since his funeral. I wish there had been a bit more going on with some of them, especially Keyleth, who's supposed to be Percy's good friend!

An even smaller thing, I don't like Vax calling Pike "Pickle" in the scene where they're discussing the resurrection. I feel like Liam always used those nicknames in cute little moments in the stream, but it wasn't a regular thing, and it feels overplayed this season to me. All the nicknames, really.

Pros:

But, okay - I thought this was a kick-ass finale, really strong! The Raishan fight was, I'm a broken record here, extremely cool to look at. The animation of this show is so top-notch that even in moments where I feel hesitant about a writing choice or what have you, it's still always stunning to look at. I loved, loved, loved Keyleth getting more of a one-on-one showdown with Raishan while still having the group there to back her up.

The thing where Keyleth turns into a rock statue of herself and then crumbles apart to become an earth elemental is both a) extremely fucking dope and b) a good angst-generating machine, as it makes everyone who witnesses it think she's just fuckin' died before she pops up out of the earth like a total bad-ass. Vax wailing in agony about her ostensible demise... yes please. We love to see it.

And the cleverness of feeding Raishan's disease back to her - wow! The visual of Keyleth killing Raishan so quickly at the end of the last episode, and then feeding into the way Raishan is ultimately brought down here - they did a good job of making the Raishan vs. Keyleth fight feel very personal. Thordak, for all that he killed Vex and Vax's mom, was still mostly just this abstract big huge danger that was going to take over the world. Raishan had a more personal vendetta against the Ashari, so it was satisfying to see this showdown play out the way it did. Five out of five dragons defeated, Vox Machina. Hell yeah.

And then we bring Percy back to life!!! Ahhhh. Everything about Vax talking to the Matron, going into the shadowy Orthax realm, finding Percy, while the ritual is going on back on Exandria, I could literally quote every beat of it as my favorite part. I got super emotional at Orthax saying "Percival deserves this" and Vax saying "the fuck he does" and struggling towards his friend. Vax's shock and dismay when Percy doesn't recognize him at first, and then "she loves you, and so do I, brother"... like, fuck me up, it was so perfect! I loved the fact that it was a team effort from the twins, here. Vex giving her famous speech and the tear breaking through to wake Percy up from his trance, and then recognizing Vax at last... Vax has this special relationship to death specifically because he loves his sister so much and was willing to die to save her, and now he's using that connection in order to find a way to get Percy back. It really ties everything together from all the way back in season two episode three, when Percy inadvertently sets off the trap that kills Vex. The three of them have had this sort of convoluted relationship to what happened that day ever since, and this is a lovely capstone of it.

Then let's talk about that ending. I already said I'm sad about the big Scanlan change. But... I understand that when they were mapping this season out, they didn't have a guaranteed season four. Given that limitation, and the economy of storytelling required to make this show at all, I do appreciate the send-offs that the characters got. Everyone's going off on their own little journeys for a while. Scanlan with his daughter, and Vex and Percy to Whitestone, and Keyleth and Vax on her Aramente. They threw in the Vex line to Vax and Keyleth about not going off to get married, which got an eyebrow raise out of me, that's for sure. I'm happy for Vex and Percy - I loved that shot of them both leaning against Trinket and cuddling. So sweet. And I'm happy for Vax and Keyleth. Him wanting nothing more than to help her out on her journey is a good look for him. I am really curious about the Matron's consequences for him for helping Percy, and how that's going to alter how that arc for Vax went originally.

And... I think that's all I've got! In a way, I think this season didn't click with me during the process of watching at quite the same level as the first two seasons did. We've got quite the escalation, and a lot of changes, and just a lot riding on certain moments, and... well, I think this is still some exceptional television. I think it's remarkably high caliber and I'm still overall quite pleased with what we got! I just had a different emotional experience with it than I think I was expecting in a couple of spots. Still, I was so relieved and excited to hear about the renewal for season four and I'm so ready to see where they take the story from here!

8.5/10