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rogueslayer452The first season of The Legend of Vox Machina takes place at the beginning of Critical Role's first campaign, focusing on two specific arcs, the first being one that was pre-stream so not only was it new to everyone it was a good place to introduce the characters, and the second being the Briarwood Arc, perhaps one of my favorite arcs of the first campaign. The season leaves off on an epic cliffhanger that teases us for the upcoming Chroma Conclave Arc.
First of all, I just want to say that watching the animated series was such a pleasantly surreal experience, having known these characters from their TTRPG streaming game, it's so delightful seeing them come to life in animated form. I was already hyped up, but being hyped up and actually watching the final product are two completely different things, and I'm absolutely elated with how the animated series turned out. The animation story, the character designs, the choices of voice-actors (outside of our main cast voicing their own characters), the music, the structure of how the season was done in such a concise way, I'm just in awe with what they managed to do.
And that's the other thing, I'm impressed with how they managed to convey so much with such a limited amount of time. In Critical Role there are hours upon hours of material spanning many episodes, and they had to strip all of that down to what was important for not just the plot, but for the characters, the emotional narrative beats and moments that were vital to what was happening, especially iconic moments that are actually taken directly from the game (as someone has done a magnificent job compiling some of those moments in gifsets), it couldn't have been easy to storyboard and construct. It was delightful and fun looking at some of those moments and going, "oh my god this moment!" and "this iconic line!", seeing those moments animated was, again, surreal and exciting. I commend them for doing a fantastic job with pinpointing what to include, what to leave out, and what to add to make the story more cohesive in the amount of time they had to tell it.
Moreover, it just made me love these characters all over again. I loved seeing some of them being allowed to shine a bit more when the story is condensed in this way.
Specific things I loved:
** I loved how unabashedly mature this series is. Most people assume that just because something looks colorful and fun and that is animated means that it's kid-friendly. Nope! This series has nudity, foul language, and gore, lots of gore. The first episode, hell the first minute of the first episode, really demonstrates that immediately and I love how they just went for it and didn't hold back, and I'm grateful for that.
** The Briarwood arc I already mentioned, but I want to specifically mention the Briarwoods themselves, Delilah and Sylas. I was already captivated by them and knew how evil and sexy they were, but holy shit it's different seeing them animated, moreover seeing their story unfold in a way that wasn't during the game. Theirs is an epic sort of love, fucked up with what they do but still, and I just want what they have to be honest. That's the general consensus I've seen people say, and it's absolutely correct. Yes, they've committed atrocities, but wouldn't you for the one you love? They are complex and I'm happy to see more of that featured in this series.
** I love Percy de Rolo. I love my beautiful, tragic, broken and damaged boy, and I loved seeing No Mercy Percy in all of his glory. I've always loved the way Taliesin plays him during the game, but holy fuck he brought it to another level for the animated series, you can really feel for him, both the sadness along with his madness, the anger and need of revenge. I also love that they clearly made him living his best anime life, and people have been making AMVs of him already, which is what he deserves, and I'm sure that Taliesin is thrilled by.
** Everything involving Orthax, the gradual reveal that something was not quite right during the third episode and then naturally evolving into his reveal towards the end, and the animation was absolutely stunning. The entire sequence was just... *chefs kiss*
** After all the shit that Marisha Ray got for Keyleth during the first campaign, people are finally unabashedly loving and appreciating the character. I would say that it's eight years too late, but better late than never I suppose, especially since a lot of these people are newcomers anyway. I love Keyleth, and I never understood the hate that was directed towards her (or Marisha, for that matter) so seeing all this love for her must be incredibly validating.
** The chilling Sun Tree moment. This was something every single Critter wanted to see animated, and we got it, and it's just as fucked up as it was described during the stream.
** I'm so beyond thrilled that they kept in Vox Machina's issues with doors. Bless.
What I want/anticipating from season two:
** Obviously I'm not going to spoil what happens for anyone who is unaware, but since the season finale teased for the upcoming Chroma Conclave arc I'm actually curious about how they're going to go about that, since that arc is incredibly long. But given with the way they structured and paced the first season of The Legend of Vox Machina and focused on the more important aspects of those arcs, I have no doubt they'll make it work for the Conclave arc as well. Furthermore, that arc features a lot of heavy emotional character stuff that I'm even more curious, if somewhat not even remotely emotionally prepared, to seeing how it would be done animated.
** More Gilmore. I loved seeing him in the first season, as brief as it was, but even though they are setting up for the romance between Vax and Keyleth I do still want more Gilmore and Vax flirting.
** Who else they'll have voicing certain NPCs. Obviously we're going to have some of them come back, but there will be other characters our heroes encounter and since they had an impressive list of people voice-acting during season one I cannot imagine what the line-up will be like for season two.
** Also, the Sun Tree, because the Sun Tree is actually a character who develops a lovely friendship with Keyleth. Yes, the Sun Tree talks, and I don't know whether this will happen or not or we'll just leave that for the game, but I really want to hear the super chill stoner voice the Sun Tree has.
Final thoughts: I love Critical Role, I love the first campaign, and so I knew that I was going to love The Legend of Vox Machina. This was a passion project that you can tell was a labor of love, and it all started as a concept from a Kickstarter that became a massive success. It helps that Matt and the rest of the cast were in full control of this project, because this is their story, their characters, a world that Matt created and you can see how dedicated they were with making it the best that it could be. And it paid off. The first season of The Legend of Vox Machina is beautiful, and it makes me love these characters and this story all over again.
tl;dr non-spoilery version: I loved The Legend of Vox Machina, the first season is a beautiful labor of love from everyone involved and as a fan of Critical Role in general I am so, so proud of what they've accomplished.
The first season is available to watch on Amazon Prime, and you don't have to be familiar with CR in order to watch it. In fact the amazing thing is that they condensed the two arcs featured and made it easily digestible for newcomers, so it's a good starting point for those who have no prior knowledge of the story along with being a treat for long-time fans of the first campaign. It is a very mature series, though, think along the lines of Castlevania in terms of maturity levels of gore/violence, crude language, etc, so proceed with caution.
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Date: 2022-03-07 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-07 04:50 am (UTC)Where are you in the first campaign, by the way?
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Date: 2022-03-07 05:36 am (UTC)