The Legend of Vox Machina: Rise of the Chroma Conclave (2x01)

We're back!!!! Since I have three of these to review, I'm going to try (and probably fail) to keep each review quick and snappy.

Cons:

I think one of the things about this show is that I want more of it? So I might criticize the pacing of a lot of the episodes, and that's because when the characters do get a moment to breathe and check in with each other, I'm enjoying it so much that I just want more. For this particular installment, I could have used a bit more time there at the end in Whitestone. Cassandra and Keeper Yennen being conveniently right by the Sun Tree when everyone emerged felt like such a blatant way to tighten up the pacing, and everything was moving so fast that we didn't even really have a chance for Keyleth to say hi to the Sun Tree, or for us to check in with Percy a bit more about how it felt to be back home. It's good, don't get me wrong, the details they do choose to include are excellent, I just feel that I haven't been given all the things I'd love to see. If every episode were just five minutes longer, I think it'd be more or less perfect.

Uriel's death felt a little... unceremonious? And honestly I think that's okay, I think it makes sense that it happens fast, and amidst chaos, but it feels odd to me that our main characters don't even seem to know that the Sovereign has been killed. They know Emon is in terrible trouble and that the dragons have taken over, but Uriel's death happened so quickly and never got remarked on again. It's a small thing, I'm sure we'll get more focus on the implications of this when we're back in Emon later down the road.

Pros:

The DRAGONS LOOK SO COOL! I think last season, the animation on Brimscythe was kind of a weak point, something about the mix of the 3-D animation didn't quite gel. I confess I know nothing about how this works, but whatever they've done for the animation of the dragons this time worked wonders. You can really get the sense of the scope; they're huge, and they move so sinisterly, and their voices are so interesting, and they each have their own style and way of dealing damage and personalities already creeping through. Really excited to see more of each of them as we proceed.

The fight and action in this first episode didn't feel like the fun, snappy action in a lot of season one, but I mean that as a good thing; it was very appropriately somber and yet intense all at once. There was no time for big creative fun ideas, no time for a lot of witty banter (although of course Scanlan got in a few quips). The deadliness of this attack is quite apparent from the jump. There are too many moments to highlight here, but a couple favorites would be Allura's bad-ass protection spell (even though it didn't save poor Uriel), Scanlan's horror on learning that the green dragon Raishan has magic as well and can combat his spells, and, of course, because I'm a sucker for these characters protecting each other, I adored Percy throwing Vax out of the way of the acid and getting seriously hurt as a result. Pike heals him as Vax looks on, concerned. That's the good stuff!

I saw someone say they didn't like how the animated series "minimized" Vax and Gilmore's connection, and I happen to feel quite differently. There's a slightly different flavor to it, because in the show I think Liam and Matt were discovering at the table how far they were going to push the idea of this romance, or what the history/potential is between them. Here, they've settled on this deep affection overlayed by fond banter. You get the sense that these two haven't hooked up and might never actually be together, honestly, but it's not a deep angsty pining situation, precisely. It's... sweet. It's the mutual knowledge of something between them that might blossom or it might not, but either way it's precious. I loved Gilmore's ridiculous overdramatic flirting when he's lying there injured, and then you've got his hand on Vax's face, you've got Vax's shout of fear as they're all running for the tree: "Gilmore! Where's Gilmore!" And then in Whitestone, Vax is reluctant to give care over to Yennen at first, until she assures him that she sees how important he is to Vax. It's all great stuff!

So, fans of the original stream know what's coming up for the twins this season. I won't get too into it here, but I did love that there was a moment when Vex and Vax were separated by the madness of the dragon attacks, and their relief at finding each other again. Their connection is one of the brightest and most developed of all the relationships in the show, and we're going to see that teased out a lot this season especially.

It was a joy to see Cassandra again, and despite my complaint above about not having much time to breathe, what we did get I thought worked very well. We see Cassandra immediately pivot to care for all these refugees fleeing from Emon, we see how well she's doing as a leader. There's this moment right at the end when Percy's about to head off with the rest of Vox Machina to continue their bigger adventure, and the two siblings share a nod of understanding. She knows why he has to keep leaving, and he knows exactly what he's asking of her by doing so. Great stuff, very subtle and powerful!

Less subtle but I thought still effective was the scene where Vox Machina sees how their actions in Whitestone inspired the people to rise up and rebuild from the ashes of their catastrophe. People don't need all their battles fought for them, necessarily, but they do need someone to stand up and say they're worth fighting for. Scanlan is the most uncertain and reluctant about taking on this task at first, but he's swayed by the proof of what they've achieved in Whitestone. Scanlan's uncertainty about their place in the world as heroes is something to keep an eye on: lots more is going to develop there.

Before I sign off for this episode I want to say, I love how they've managed to wrangle the different seasons of the show into having sort of... rotating focuses of character growth. Broadly speaking, Percy was the main character of season one, and Pike had her own subplot. Season two, if I had to guess based on what I've seen so far and what I know of the trajectory, will have the twins as sort of our "main characters", with Grog the one with a nice juicy subplot. Leaving season three, I think quite appropriately, to be the Scanlan and Keyleth focus season, as there are longer-term developments for both of them that I think will give them center stage at that point. I don't know if they're thinking about it quite like that, and of course it will always be an ensemble-focused show, but I just love the rhythm of what they're achieving so much.

Okay, onwards to Vasselheim we go!

9/10