The Legend of Vox Machina: The Temple of Truth (4x09)

Let's... discuss under the cut, shall we?

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Bard’s Lament (4x08)

I feel like I can sense that people will have mixed feelings about this episode, and... yeah, you can count me in as well.

Cons:

It's tedious and unhelpful to just go around saying "but in the campaign..." every time something isn't adapted the way I wanted it. But on the other hand, this show inherently has an odd relationship to the idea of fan service, maybe more so even than other adaptations. There are certain moments, certain character beats, that are already legendary within the source material. And I gotta be honest... this wasn't a very satisfying replacement for the way the Bard's Lament episode goes down in canon. In the animated shows, everyone left on good terms last we saw them at the end of season three, and then we show up here and Scanlan is hesitant and weird and thinks that Vox Machina brings out the worst in him... I don't know. The impact of "what's my mother's name" was just not there at all with this.

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Ghosts of Whitestone (4x07)

Yes, Laudna, I'm going to go ahead and call this one "fun" scary!

Cons:

I am hyper-sensitive to hetero-normative stuff, especially in shows where I feel like they are good about not being too rigid in that regard... so I have to point out that I definitely did roll my eyes at Delilah taunting Vax with the future he could have if he lived, and that future was... having a lot of babies with Keyleth? I don't know. Is it just me, or is that tedious. We saw Scanlan have visions of growing old and becoming a patriarch of a family a few seasons back. We know that Percy and Vex will have a bunch of kids some day. Is the tragedy of Vax's impending death that he won't get to "settle down" with Kiki and become a father? That was never really the vibe I got from the original source material. This is a small thing, a nitpick, really, I just wish there was an imagined future that Vax was afraid of losing that didn't have to evoke the idea of having kids. That doesn't always have to be the symbol of a hoped-for future, ya know? I am also side-eying the idea of Keyleth and Delilah being parallels, what with Keyleth wanting to try and save Vax the same way Delilah tried to save Sylas. I always thought Percy and Vex were the obvious Briarwood parallel but whatever.

The Legend of Vox Machina: We Are His Blood (4x06)

I am such Perc'ildan trash. Fuck.

Cons:

Man, the Doty thing was a little anti-climactic, I remember feeling Emotions about that during the campaign. Huh.

I am excited about the reveal hitting right at the midpoint of the season, of who mysterious cult leader lady is, BUT, this is another one of this situations where I can't avoid thinking about the campaign, and like... the raw power of the audience and the characters finding out collectively in a moment of dawning horror who was standing in front of that crowd making that speech... oof. Nothing can top it. I kind of can't believe we don't get to be discovering this alongside Vox Machina. As an adaptation change, it felt like it packed less of a punch, especially since I thought it was so clever to hide her in plain sight throughout these first few episodes.

I left this vague on purpose; spoilers abound under the cut. 

The Legend of Vox Machina: De Rolo's Eleven (4x05)

This was a really fun episode!

Cons:

Okay. So. The Vax thing with the blight. I don't want to go into the full long rant about what I don't like about this, because I do want to see where we land a little later on, but in short, it really bothers me that Vax is dying from a punishment set by the Matron. Like, I think the Matron is... allegorically, symbolically, she is the inevitability of death. She cannot be avoided forever. But she's not vindictive, she's not punitive. In the campaign, Vax dies in a combat encounter just kinda by random happenstance, and the Matron gives him a short time back among the land of the living to finish up some things... but she's not the cause of his death in the first place. To me, this change kinda fucks with the theme. Even if you take away the randomness and say he's dying slowly of a magical terminal illness, sure, I can see why that's the direction they want to go. I don't mind a change. But it shouldn't be the Matron's doing. It makes her more straight-forwardly into a villain, which I don't think she should be. Vax can regret the path that led him here for a lot of reasons, but he shouldn't, ultimately, blame the Matron personally for the hard road he has to walk. I feel like that undercuts what is beautiful about the story.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Taryon, My Wayward Son (4x04)

Okay I do truly love the name of this episode lol.

Cons:

I do think giving Tary this big cathartic moment with his dad is perhaps a wee bit premature. I understand that Tary is not Sam's character in the animated show, he's not temporary-replacement-Scanlan in the way he was in the campaign, which added a lot more of a heart-wrenching element to what was going on with that character. Still, meeting the shitty dad and having the group discover how bad Tary's been treated all in the same episode where Tary learns and processes the truth and has his moment of triumph... maybe a little less impactful than it could have been. I get it, there's a lot they have to fit in.

Renewing my confusion/frustration with whatever is going with Pike. When she goes "we don't have that kind of relationship" about her and the Everlight, I wanted Vax or someone to be like... "huh? Why? What happened?" And then I wanted Pike to explain herself! I suppose I could end up happy with where this all goes, but for the time being I remain flummoxed.

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Coronation (4x03)

Ohhohoh. Keeping with the tradition of having a dope-ass third episode, I see.

Cons:

I can't think of anything to complain about. I guess I wonder if Cerkonos's fate will be explicitly shown to us later, if the ambiguity intentional, or if I'm supposed to understand he's dead? They squished his eyes in pretty good there (ewww) but didn't do a full head explode-y situation like that one scene in Game of Thrones so... unclear.

The episode hangs a lampshade on the fact that the Matron's warning to Vax is very vague. In fact it hangs two lampshades. This does not make it less irritating though. I think maybe this would have been a little better if the Matron had been more explicit about the warning, but had been uncertain herself as to the timing. Kind of a "dark times are coming, there are people fucking with death itself, power is coalescing and as my Champion it's important you be ready." Something. This is a nitpick, it's still always soooo cool to see the Matron, her design in the show is sick as hell.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Trial By Water (4x02)

Okay, episode two! Maybe not my favorite, but not bad by any means.

Cons:

I love Keyleth very much, and I am so proud of her accomplishments, really. I will say, though, there's something of a diminishing return with all the fake-out "I'm on the verge of death and all is hopeless and then BAM I got a major glow-up and became an elemental and saved the day!" It was so cool when it happened during her fire trial. Then it kinda happened twice on her earth trial, as first her father and then Vox Machina briefly believed her to be dead until she popped out of the earth as a bad-ass rock monster. And now here, in her water trial, same thing. She's defeated, but nope! She's not! Hooray! There's nothing I can point to here that was poorly done, it's just the very nature of it being something we've seen twice before, you know?

The Legend of Vox Machina: One Year Later... (4x01)

We're back!!

Cons:

I thought the gimmick of cutting between Vex and Percy as they each deal with their moments of peril worked to a point, but as it kept going it felt like it was interrupting the flow and the momentum of their respective scenes a bit. Maybe I'll feel different on a re-watch, it was just a tad jarring at spots.

The way they have adapted Pike's religion stuff is maybe the most confusing part of this animated show to me. It's the one thing they've had to basically build whole-cloth without the campaign for a guide, and I often find it a bit unfocused and unclear. I am cautiously optimistic that this story-line with former adherents to the Everlight turning to the Whispered One will position Pike to finally come into alignment with her goddess in a way that feels satisfying to her as a character and to me as a viewer. My fear, though, is more unfocused story-telling where it's unclear if Pike is trying to embrace her position as a cleric or run from it. At some point I think we kind of need to settle in, here. The character with a complicated and greatly conflicted relationship to a goddess on this show is Vax. We probably don't need the same thing with Pike.