The Legend of Vox Machina Ep. 1

 

Now that I finally finished the D&D cartoon, I have decided to watch a contemporary D&D animated series - The Legend of Vox Machina, which is on Amazon Prime.

This cartoon is based on a real life D&D game played by actual voice actors, chronicled on the "actual play" show known as Critical Role.

Critical Role is hugely popular and, from what I can tell, has played a large part in drawing people in to playing 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons.

Critical Role has actually spawned a number of D&D supplements:

• Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting (I reviewed this book right here)
• Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (I reviewed this right here)
• Call of the Netherdeep
  

I've only watched one full episode of the Critical Role show, which I reviewed here. I liked it, but it was just too long for me to watch on a weekly basis.

The Characters

Grog: A Goliath who likes combat, women and ale. He used to travel with a violent barbarian clan, but that ended when he stopped them from killing a gnome. The clan turned on him, beat him and left him for dead. Grog was healed by a relative of the gnome, a fellow named Pike.     

Keyleth: A druid that loves nature and elemental magic, Keyleth is on a quest to discover herself.    

Percy: When nobles overtook his family's castle, Percy and his sister fled, but his sister was apparently killed by archers.    

Pike: A halfling cleric.

Scanlan: A gnome bard who is searching for a true gnome to fall in love with.

Vax'Ildan: A half-elf thief with a twin sister, Vex'ahlia. They left their father's elven settlement and wandered for a few years. When they came back, the place had been destroyed by a dragon.    

Vex'ahlia: A half-elf ranger. The sister of Vax. Neither twin was accepted by the elf community that they lived in with their father. She has a bear companion named Trinket.

The Show

I'm going to obviously spoil the show now, so I highly recommend that you watch this episode before reading. Check it out and then come back.

I'm coming right off from watching the '80's D&D cartoon, so this very jarring. The opening sequence, which involves Matt Mercer explaining the setting and story, has some really awesome art.

There's a great evil, and a band of heroes who greatly resemble characters from the Lord of the Rings try to deal with it, but they are slaughtered.

The rulers of Tal'Dorei argue about what to do about the evil entity. One sinister fellow wants to capture it and use it as a weapon, but the ruler wants mercenaries to kill it. They need to find "the greatest mercenaries in Tal'Dorei."

We cut to the heroes, drunk in a tavern. I am so taken aback by the swearing. The f-bombs are flying left and right.

They get into an altercation with another group of adventurer-types, which includes some kind of dog guy. Wait, there's a cat-person too.

What a great intro. Keyleth vomits in the dog guy's mouth.

The group wonders where Scanlan is. He's got a room with a lady. Good lord, we have full frontal nudity. I was 100% not ready for this.

The bartender puts a stop to the fight. The bartender seems to have the ability to turn into a minotaur at will.

Kicked out of the bar, the group is broke. They see a "mercenaries wanted" sign.

The heroes comes before the rulers of Tal'Dorei.

Scanlan tries to impress the ruler with a song about the group. The rulers have a quick, quiet conference and decide, "Why not?"

The group's task: Kill the evil entity. Their reward will be a chest full of treasure.

Next thing we know, the group is on an airship. The ship seems to be powered by a handful of large, glowing crystals affixed around the edges.

The adventurers disembark and visit a village that was hit by the evil entity. A villager asks Pike to bless their home. Pike tries, but seems like she doesn't know what she's doing.

The heroes learn that the creature has wings and that it is really big. Using the nose of Trinket, they begin tracking the entity through the forest. They eventually find footprints of a humanoid.

Suddenly, a dragon rises up and breathes massive bolts of lightning.

The group considers running but Grog says, "F*ck that." Keyleth casts what looks to be call lightning, which seems to make the dragon stronger.

The group ends up buried in rubble, and the dragon flies away. Grog has a hideous wound. Pike heals him.

The heroes discuss abandoning the quest. "Who gives a soggy anus..." Keyleth is in shock. Pike reminds the group that the people need them. 

Vax explains that she can sense dragons, and that she sensed one in the palace. "Someone in the council must have been in contact with the dragon."

The general feeling seems to be that the dragon is just too high-level for them to take on.

Upon their return to the village, they see that the entire village has been wiped out. There is one survivor - a kid who is badly wounded. No.. wait. Pike has no healing left. The kid passes away.

The group changes their mind. They're going to kill the dragon.

Thoughts

I have actual chills. That was so good. The art, the music, the writing... just amazing. This episode is the D&D session you hope to run.

It makes me wonder why Hasbro hasn't created a D&D cartoon like this in recent years. I know there's a movie coming out (made by the people who made Game Night, a movie I love), but it seems like a no-brainer. You could either tie it to the old cartoon, or create some contemporary heroes and each season run them through a TV version of one of the adventures.

They could do Acquisitions Inc., even. It's kind of odd that they never did.

I hope Vox Machina is a huge success (I'm guessing it is) so we see more of this type of thing.