The long awaited third season of The Legend of Vox Machina has dropped its first batch of episodes on Prime Video and we have thoughts about it!
*note: spoilers abound in this review for The Legend of Vox Machina season 3. You have been warned!
To say fans have been impatiently waiting for the third season of The Legend of Vox Machina is a vast understatement. There were over 18 months between the end of season 2 and the premiere of season 3 when the first three episodes of the season were released and by the end of that wait fans were going practically feral for the story of Vox Machina to continue.
To the surprise of no one, season 3 has completely been worth the wait.
As a refresher, The Legend of Vox Machina is an animated adaptation of Critical Role’s first campaign. The third season picks up immediately after the conclusion of season 2, when Vox Machina managed to take down the black dragon Umbrasyl as part of their ongoing quest to take down the Chroma Conclave. This is an alliance of dragons who seek to rule the continent of Tal’dorei. As of the beginning of season 3, three dragons remain in this cabal: the red dragon Thordak (voiced by the late Lance Reddick in one of his final roles), the white dragon Vorugal (voiced by Liam O’Brien) and the green dragon Raishan (voiced by Cree Summer).
In the wake of that barely won victory, our heroes find themselves confronted by the green dragon Raishan, who unexpectedly offers the group an alliance to take down the red dragon Thordak. But to do that, Raishan claims, the group will need to find a powerful relic known as the Plate of the Dawnmartyr, magical plate armor that can help to take down a dragon and protect from their dragon fire.
This is the essence of the first three episodes of the season which are titled as follows:
- Episode 1: A Deadly Bargain
- Episode 2: Prisoners of Ank’Harel
- Episode 3: Vexations
There’s so much to unpack just in these three episodes. First of all, the production was given a bigger budget for this season and it shows. Not that the animation in the first two seasons was bad (far from it), but even in the first episode it’s clear what more can be done when the studio has more financial resources to work with. The dragons in particular are beautifully rendered in 3D animation and we’re given more than enough of a tease of how brutal a full on fight with them will be.
One of the biggest highlights of this first block of episodes is that we finally see the city of Ank’Harel brought to animated life. Unlike earlier locations in this series, which took place in mountainous and relatively cooler climates, Ank’Harel is located on the far southern continent of Marquet and is surrounded by a vast desert. As a result, its design is utterly different from any place Vox Machina have been before and it is absolutely beautiful. The introduction to this city is one of my favorite moments as composer Neal Acree makes it plain that our heroes aren’t in Tal’Dorei anymore.
Then there’s the introduction to J’mon Sa Ord, the enigmatic ruler of Ank’Harel. One thing I have always loved about Critical Role and The Legend of Vox Machina is the way LGBTQ+ and other gender-diverse identities are casually presented as just being a fact of life (as it should be). In this case, J’mon Sa Ord is a non-binary individual introduced as the “Emperex” of Ank’Harel. Furthermore, their voice actor, Mara Junot, is also non-binary. Their character design is also everything fans have ever wanted to see of the character. J’mon Sa Ord is strikingly beautiful, but with a core of iron that will make you genuinely afraid of them during their introduction.
Perhaps most importantly, during these three episodes several relationships took major steps forward, for better or worse. In particular, the season looks to be focusing on the budding relationships between Vex’ahlia (Laura Bailey) and Percy de Rolo (Taliesin Jaffe), as well as between Keyleth (Marisha Ray) and Vax’ildan (Liam O’Brien). Fans have been particularly waiting to see Perc’ahlia (as the relationship is affectionately dubbed among Critters) become official and did we ever get that moment!
The Legend of Vox Machina blew minds everywhere when it adapted one of the most famous scenes in the original campaign, namely when Percy comes to Vex’ahlia’s room only to find her waiting for him completely naked at the door. The nudity is hilariously covered up in just the right places, but nothing is really left to the imagination. Heartbreakingly, this moment is countered by Keyleth and Vax’ildan’s would-be relationship hitting a road block: Vax’ildan is aware that Keyleth is on a path that will see her outlive all of Vox Machina (himself included) by centuries, hence he doesn’t want to cause her pain by entering a relationship that is doomed to be cut short when he inevitably dies. Of course, this boneheaded decision causes Keyleth pain anyway and it will be interesting to see how the pair’s relationship develops the rest of the season.
I know fans are discouraged from actively comparing the animated series too closely to the original campaign, but it is fascinating to me how changes from the campaign to the series are creating a sort of “butterfly effect” that ripples the further into the story we go. For instance, in the original story, Vox Machina finds Draconia, a nation of dragonborn in floating cities, completely destroyed by Vorugal by the time they arrive. In the animated series, that attack hasn’t happened, so viewers are treated to Draconia in its glory, something we never saw in the original campaign. There are numerous examples of this throughout the entire series, but this is one of my favorite instances that popped up this season.
Finally there’s where the story leaves us in the third episode. Famously, in the original campaign Vox Machina literally travels to Hell on a matter of urgent business. While the plot reasons are altered for the animated series, the business is no less urgent: Vox Machina, well, part of them anyway, travel to Dis, the capital city of Hell, in order to search for the aforementioned Plate of the Dawnmartyr because of course finding a legendary relic won’t be that easy. This place is just as horrifying as it sounds in the brief glimpse we’ve had of it thus far, and it’s actually a little terrifying to wonder what more we’ll see of it come the drop of the next three episodes.
Thus far, the new season of The Legend of Vox Machina is off to a flying start. The party is split and our heroes are in great peril, whatever will happen next? Unfortunately we have to wait until next week to find out!
Episodes 4-6 of season 3 of The Legend of Vox Machina release next Thursday, October 10th only on Amazon Prime Video.
