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. 

Pros:

Speaking of hiding in plain sight: I could hear Grey DeLisle's voice through the distortion on the cult leader from minute one, so I was giggling waiting for the Delilah reveal to happen. Similarly, the SECOND that the new holy man in Westruun struck up a conversation with Pike, I was that Leo DiCaprio pointing meme. Andy Serkis! IMMEDIATE recognition of his voice and thus IMMEDIATE understanding that this was the Whispered One himself, in some sort of guise. I don't think every single person listening would be able to clock him that quickly, and normies maybe don't even know that Serkis was cast and that we all assumed it was for Vecna (I mean the Whispered One sorry), but that was kind of a cool "bonus" for me, where I gasped the second he opened his mouth and got chills at the thought of him just casually standing around in this room with Pike and Grog and all these innocent people. Wicked.

This entire plot thread with Grog and Pike going back to Westruun is wholly added for the show here, and I think it's really strong. Pardon the tangent, but when I think about Matt Mercer's world and story building as a GM, one of the things I really like about him is that things spread out from point of contact with the characters. It feels collaborative, at the table, that whenever the characters choose to go somewhere or speak to someone, it's like you can feel the details of the world spilling out from their choices, watercolors bleeding across a formerly blank page. This is the cool thing about a TTRPG for me. But in a scripted show, I think that would read more like dropping a plot thread. Having a story that connects the current growing threat of the death cult to the consequences of the Chroma Conclave is so cool and makes so much sense. Pike's uncertainty, her strange journey with her faith, clicks into place a little bit more for me when we see her reacting with shame and horror at the sickness Umbrasyl left behind after his occupation of the area. Her healing can't save these people, and in their desperation they have turned to the creepy cult people, and Pike can't do anything to help them and she has to watch her Pop Pop die, and it's... yeah, that's worthy of a bit of a crisis of faith.

I maintain that the show is being kinda being weird about Pike, but I also feel like learning about Pike's ancestor who wielded Mythcarver and was a champion of the Knowing Mistress, was helpful in making me feel a little better about this. I guess I've been sort of worried that the show was positioning the gods in an adversarial way, but I don't think that's quite what's going on. I love the idea that Pike's ancestor wielded a weapon that now belongs to Scanlan, what a cool fun way to hook him back into the adventure. And Henry Winkler Gnome death is so sad!! I loved how the arc developed here, where we see him, he's happy and he has a partner, he calls Grog family and gives them both family heirlooms, and then by the end of the episode he's dying right in front of Pike's eyes. It's some classic story-telling, depressing as hell, and oddly beautiful. I wonder if Ashley hurt herself screaming like that in the booth. It gave me chills.

Back in Whitestone, Vex and Keyleth drink out their frustrations over the revelations about Vax dying, and Vex and Percy getting married. I loved the scene of the two of them getting weepy, Keyleth's voice breaking on "that made him so sad" about the wedding thing... ME TOO, GIRL, ME TOO. And then they turn their rage on the Matron of Ravens, and go to her temple to demand answers. This has always been a juicy element of Vax's story, that the two most important people in his life will never be able to forgive the Matron for what has happened to Vax, even as Vax himself positions himself differently in relation to her. I hope we get to explore that more. When Keyleth is like "the Matron DID THIS to him and he won't even ask her WHY" it did give me a spark of hope that there's more shit going on here than we understand... are we going to get a reveal that makes the blight story less frustrating? I am tentatively hopeful at this point that they aren't just making the Matron responsible for Vax dying with no qualifying context... we shall see. I reserve the right to go back to being pissed and annoyed about this at any moment. Mostly I just loved watching Vex and Kiki get some cathartic crying and drinking in. Vex is the one to throw up this time. That's growth, Keyleth. Learning to hold your liquor hehe. And of course Vex promising she'll always be there for Keyleth... they are family... I cry. And the shot of them resting on each other and sleeping off their drinking was just so sweet. Why are they the cutest.

Percy, Vax, and Tary, meanwhile, figure out how to deal with the spinning orb of doom! The episode starts with Grog giving us a summary of some of the Whispered One lore. We basically learn that he challenged the gods and they locked him up in a sinister place called Thar Amphala, on another plane, and that the orb is sucking people and magic into it. Percy's anti-magic contraptions don't stop it, but Tary has an idea, and uses Doty as an anchor to try and defeat it. And it works! Doty, unfortunately, doesn't survive the attempt. Like I said above, this felt a little anticlimactic in the sense that Percy and Vax don't even seem to register that Tary had real affection for his robot pal. They did have Doty do a really distressed "Tary" right towards the end which did hurt my feelings a little. What I like about this is that Tary is the one who comes up with the brilliant idea and saves the day. Percy and Vax are both surprised to find out that he's not just a rich idiot with a lot of gems, but as Tary points out, he did build a robot, which is a pretty good sign he's got some smarts too.

Vax is being his broody self, and Percy tries to talk to him about the marriage thing but Vax brushes him off. Then, after the orb is seemingly neutralized and Vax won't celebrate, Percy gets frustrated, and says he's sorry that saving his life cost Vax his, and that he's sorry he went and married Vax's sister. Only for Vax to turn on him, grab him by the front of his shirt, and declare that he'd save Percy's life again in a heartbeat and he's not mad that Percy and Vex got married, he's devastated that he wasn't there. He's going to miss so much, he's just not ready to go. And then Percy pulls him into a hug and I dieeeeed. I love them so so much. I really do think the twins and their partners have such an interesting dynamic, the four of them have a lot of intimacy and closeness that bleeds across all these boundaries. Vex and Vax both needed to work out the recent revelations, and they turn to their respective twin's partner in order to do that. I'm thrilled that we got a hug, I cannot handle it. And then the shot of the two of them sitting and looking out over the city together... stopppp. It's too cute. I just want them to be best friends forever.

As always, that's the big main compliment I give to this show. Even if at times it is (understandably) focused more on the romances, they never forget that this group is full of people who love each other and are connected in all sorts of ways. I like seeing Tary folded into that a bit, I like seeing all of these friends leaning on each other. This one was so sad, so beautiful, so powerful... definitely my favorite of the season so far. Perhaps on the strength of that Perc'ildan hug all by itself.

I know, I know. Leave me alone.

9/10