The Legend of Vox Machina: Vexations (3x03)

I have a feeling people are going to have VERY strong opinions about a couple of things in this episode!

Cons:

I want to start with a small thing that I haven't seen people talking about, but that bothered me probably an unreasonable amount. When the gang is together in Draconia and they're discussing their trip to Hell, they decide to split up so that someone can be on the other side to guard the pathway back out. Kima, Allura, Vex, and Percy end up staying while the rest of Vox Machina go through the portal. And this moment of separation featured no significant looks or goodbyes or angst or worry at all, really! I can't believe Vax didn't have parting words for Vex, or anything. It was a strange moment because it's ultimately a small detail, but I really noticed the lack of ceremony given to it. It kind of downplayed the dangers of Hell, how casual they were about separating and going there.

This is another small thing, but I feel like "Kiki" is being overused as a nickname this season, by Vax especially. I feel like Kiki was always kind of a cutesy name, but she was called "Keyleth" 90% of the time, especially in serious moments. So having Vax call her "Kiki" in moments of angst just landed slightly awkwardly to me.

Okay, let's talk about the romances: I'll have a lot of positive stuff to say in a moment, but I want to start here. I remain validated that the flipping of motivation between Vax and Keyleth feels very strange to me! And I think it does a disservice to both of their characters as I understand them from the original campaign. For Vax, I think him having angst and doubt about his relationship to the Matron of Ravens is an important part of his story, and I can totally understand why those feelings getting tied up with his romance with Keyleth would happen. But, here they have him presenting it as not really anything to do with his relationship to his goddess, and more to do with the lifespan angst of Keyleth living on without him? Which... okay... I understand him being concerned about that for her sake, sure, but she's saying it's okay with her and she knows the risk, and he's still trying to be all noble about it? That's not... Vax.

And in my opinion it does an even bigger disservice to Keyleth's character. It's like she's skipped a couple of steps on her character journey without us getting to see it. Her coming to the conclusion that joy today is worth pain tomorrow is such a beautiful sentiment, but for me, at least from my memory of the campaign, she has to fight to come to that realization through the process of coming into her own as a leader, as well. What was so endearing and realistic to me about the Vax and Keyleth romance in the stream was that it was a story of two people who really cared for each other but who were mismatched in terms of where they were in their emotional development. Keyleth is nervous and inexperienced and not ready for love when Vax suddenly declares his love and plants a kiss on her in the campaign. She's wishy-washy and kind of hurtful for a while, getting close and pulling back, as she tries to work out what she wants and what she's ready for. But here, in the show, they start the arc that same way in Whitestone, but then in season two it seems like Keyleth is ready to give it a try but Vax rebuffs her by being too caught up in Matron Angst. Then here in season three, Vax kisses her, promises to have her back, fails to have her back, and then basically breaks up with her. It's not a good look for him, and it does this weird 180 reverse on the expected dynamic between them.

All of that to say, I like that the Vax/Keyleth romance is plagued by this very earnest angst and insecurity, I like that they have a lot to work out between them and that they have all these little false starts along the way. But the framing of it feels wildly off from what I would have expected!

Now onto Percy and Vex: I think I'm going to ultimately end up very happy with the romance and how they portray it in the show, but I will admit to a moment of flabbergast and disappointment when I first saw Percy pacing in the hallway outside of Vex's room holding those glasses and that bottle of wine. I said, out loud, "What?! Now?!" I kept thinking about Glintshore, and the resurrection ritual, and the talk in the woods, and Percy going in for the kiss - such a wildly different way that their romance is cemented in the stream, vs. what we see here. I think this is a perfectly valid story and it doesn't feel out of character for either of them, honestly, but there was this initial reaction from me that was a little bummed out to see it shifted so dramatically. Now, I assume we're still getting Glintshore and we're still getting certain confessions, as we would want to see them from the stream. But the context sure has shifted! I'm just a tiny bit wrong-footed by it, in a way that I think comes from my attachment to Percy/Vex as a ship in its original form!

Pros:

Okay, that was a lot more time spent in the "cons" section than I usually do for these reviews. To the surprise of absolutely nobody, I still thought this episode kicked ass. I'm so willing and in fact so excited to see how the show adapts the romances that I've just discussed. I think we'll end up with stories that are different from the stream, but not inferior. It's a different story, and when I frame it that way, I feel like there's plenty to be hyped about here.

Starting with Percy and Vex, I am just in love with the hardcore flirting, Vex shooting her shot, Cassandra pushing Percy down the stairs to go to her room... there was the moment when Cass accuses him of being smitten and he immediately replies "so what if I am?" That was so refreshing, to skip right past any suggestion that Percy's going to be in denial about this. And then the sex scene - it's so funny, for the most part when I watch this show I'm swept up in the story and I don't think about the Critical Role cast saying these words exactly, but hearing Taliesin and Laura make sex noises actually made me flustered, I was like "those are good pals Laura Bailey and Taliesin Jaffe pretending to have orgasms! Aghh!" So that was funny.

But I honestly thought the scene was great, I thought the juxtaposition between their raunchy night together with no proper talk to speak of, and then Vax breaking Keyleth's heart down the hall, was honestly great framing to set up these relationships moving forward. It puts Vex and Vax on this parallel path, where even though they're coming at these romances from different angles and with different perspectives, they're grounded by similar core insecurities. Vex has always been afraid of letting people too close because of how bad she's been burned before, and Vax has always held on too tightly to the people he loves out of fear of losing them. Both of them are having those insecurities play out in their romance arcs, which I do like - setting aside all the stuff I said about Vax/Keyleth above.

And there were great moments for both sets of romances during the rest of the episode, too - The heartbreaking innocence of Keyleth's response when Vax says they can't be together: "But, we kissed." It was just so sweet and tender and I felt so much for her. I really, really liked the moment when Vax asks Keyleth if she's okay, and Keyleth replies: "I have to be." That's... giving me a lot of Campaign Three Keyleth feelings, I must say. It kind of feels like that's the place she's in for a lot of her life, and it's so sad!

And the Percy/Vex of it all, it really is murdering me. Vex saying "call it a tryst, call it a mistake, call it whatever you want" is like... ouch, girl, you've got a big storm coming! But Percy, whose arc this season is about moving forward from the guilt of his past and embracing what he wants from his life, is being the sweetest most darling perfect gentleman! Him running to her and holding her on the ground at the end, and then Vex giving her speech about how they can't be anything serious because she's afraid of losing him, and Percy kissing her on the forehead and saying "as you like"... seriously that's some romantic-ass shit, de Rollo, congratulations on being so hot.

I don't want to forget the awkward failed Scanlan and Pike kiss, oof, that was painful to watch but in the best possible way. I loved Scanlan just immediately apologizing and backtracking and saying "what is wrong with me". The angst setup with this character is just so exquisite, I'm beside myself about it to be quite honest. Also just want to note the beauty of the animation in that moment, Pike with her hair down, the gnomes in the moonlight...

One thing that I think makes this episode quite stellar, despite my specific qualms, is that they really just lean into the romance drama from every possible angle. Right alongside all these Vox Machina entanglements and difficulties, we've got established-relationship badasses Kima and Allura along for the adventure to Draconia, and turns out they've got bitter lesbian drama with one of their former party members! We love to see it!

For reasons obvious to long-time CR fans, the Draconia arc here has quite different connotations than in the original stream. Whereas before, Vox Machina had an emotional tie to the place through Tiberius, and they honored that in the story even through the difficulty with you-know-who, here in the animated show there's no such complicated tie to this new location. So, much like with Gilmore and Ank'Harel, they chose to give some other popular NPCs an emotional tie to Draconia through Dohla. She's a dragonborn who used to run with Kima and Allura, had unrequited feelings for Kima, and then felt embittered when the two of them got together and got all the credit after locking Thordak away in the Fire Plane, leaving her on the outside of the glory. 

It was fun to get these glimpses of backstory for these characters. I loved how awkward Kima was about the whole thing. I also loved that Vorugal killed Dohla; it was such a shocking an unexpected moment in the episode, and you really felt for Allura as she cried out and tried to save her. Despite Dohla's betrayal, that was a former beloved friend and party member! And of course as our episode ends, Kima has fallen off the cliff edge and we don't know where she's at, Allura and Percy and Vex are trapped in a cave, and the rest of Vox Machina is off in the Hells! The stakes get higher and higher every week, don't they!

Small details I don't want to forget: I didn't mention last week, but we got yet another mention of Zerxus in this episode as the contact they're looking for in Dis, and I am SOOOO pumped! I assume Luis is going to be voicing him? Is this one step closer to my dream of getting a Calamity mini-series? Can you imagine? And then they can do a Downfall one... I'm greedy, but I want this whole Exandria saga animated, please and thank you! Also just to mention, loved the animation of Hell, already got so many creepy and interesting details, such good color and gore. I'm sure we'll see more of that next week. And same with Draconia, what an amazing location design.

I can't believe I have to wait a whole additional week to see what's next! But at the same time, I can't believe it's going to be just a few short weeks until the whole season's over... curses! I have to dock this one a little bit more because of my questioning of the Vax/Keyleth plot in specific, but I'm still wildly entertained and excited by what I'm seeing.

8/10