The Legend of Vox Machina‘s penultimate season is its most dramatic and emotional yet. And also its most well done.
When we first met the lovable idiots that make up Vox Machina, their lives were mostly dick jokes and drinking games. They were simply a band of friends who were looking to make a name for themselves.
Over time, they become something more. To the world, to each other. They became heroes, and they became family. (Well, those who weren’t already literally family to begin with.) And yet, when we reunite with Vox Machina at the start of season four, they are separate from each other. Vex and Percy are reigning over Whitestone, newly freed from the clutches of the Briarwoods. Pike and Grog go back home to visit Wilhand Trickfoot, Pike’s great-great-grandfather, and discover the wreckage the dragons left behind before they were defeated. Scanlan is off with his daughter making music. And Keyleth and Vax are preparing for Keyleth’s Aramente, the special quest she must go on to become the Voice of the Tempest aka the leader of her Ashari people.
However, a new evil emerges, bringing them all together again…for better or worse. In their year apart, things have changed. Some of them have grown, some have been harboring secret hurts, some have been hiding a spreading curse. Are they still the Vox Machina they once were? Can they still be the heroes of the realm they were once still desperate to be, even though now they all have a lot more to lose? Maybe the introduction of Taryon Darrington, who sees them all as brave adventurers, will be who they need to remind them of the heroes they once were.
As for the gay of it all, there wasn’t a lot of explicitly queer content, though we did see some old and new queer characters. For one, wives Allura and Kima make brief appearances as members of the Tal’Dorei Council, once again voiced by Indira Varma and Stephanie Beatriz, respectively. Plus, we got a little sneak peek of one of the queer ladies of Bells Hells when Vex runs into a “fun scary” stranger named Laudna in the bowels of her Whitestone home. Speaking of Whitestone, I discovered the voice of Percy’s sister Cassandra, Esmé Creed-Miles, is bisexual. And during a heisty episode, the gang meets an agender monk of the Cobalt Sol named Yudala Fon voiced by Sara Ramirez. Plus, of course, Vex and Vax (and probably Keyleth) are bisexual and Scanlan is pansexual. Gilmore the Gay is back, and newcomer Taryon Darrington (voiced by pansexual actor Wayne Brady) is gay as well. Remember, this show is based on a real D&D game, and if most of your characters aren’t queer, are you even playing D&D right?
This season takes on a darker tone than the earlier seasons of this show, as the stakes get higher and the characters mature after suffering losses and being faced with a reality they didn’t have to face before. This new enemy forces them to ask themselves: What would they do to protect the ones they love? How far would they go if they had nothing left to lose? What do you do when your friends stand against you? When you feel totally and utterly alone? When your enemy is death? Can you take fate in your own hands, or are you at the whim of a higher power?
It’s heavy shit, is what I’m saying. Of course, there are still funny moments, like the aforementioned heist episode, and Keyleth and Vex powering through an argument by drinking about it and then breaking into a temple of the Raven Queen to give them a piece of their mind about what she’s doing to their precious Vax.
Because that’s the spirit of Vox Machina, making you cry and laugh and back again at breakneck speeds. I think they’re also doing a great job of hitting some major plot points and character moments from the original story they told during their tabletop game, making it a great story for newcomers to Critical Role, while also changing just enough to keep it fresh and surprising for those of us who have been here for a decade. The tone this season feels more Vox Machina to me than any of the seasons before. It strikes the perfect balance of humor, high fantasy, action, and feelings.
This season set up the next season perfectly, with some things feeling hopeless, some feeling desperate, a lot on the line. Vox Machina aren’t the heroes of Exandria anymore. They’ve proven that they’re flawed, that they can be selfish, that they have weaknesses their enemies can exploit. But they have also proven how powerful they are and how far they’ll go for the people they love. They have lost so much, as a group and as individuals; they’ve lost loved ones, lost faith, lost battles. It seems as though they can’t endure much more. But who else can face The Whispered One as he ascends to godhood and threatens to ruin everything they fought so hard to protect? Who else but Vox Machina? Are they up for the challenge, as broken as they are?
I guess we’ll find out in the show’s fifth and final season of The Legend of Vox Machina. (And possibly even beyond…)
Comments
I thought this was the strongest season by far