I'll go.
Once again the Vox Machina shows appears to offer itself as a bridge to people who are interested in Fantasy but perhaps not completely up-to-date and on-the-ball about every snippet of Dungeons and Dragon's specific lore. How this will then go on to translate to people with only the slightest of wisp of a care? Well that is the question I really want to explore as I look into the boons and benefits of the new animated series based on the D&D series, Vox Machina. My forced perspective will try to be from the eyes of someone with minimal knowledge as to who these people are or what the world they live in will be like, and my thesis is that by looking through these eyes I might be able to see how viable shows in this vein can be when hosted on massive streaming services like HBO Max. Because that might be the 'Game of Thrones'/'New Lord of the Rings' homehub, but make no mistake, a lot of those series' fans are very much still normies. There were people watching GOT just because it was popular back when it was still good, the kind who got confused about basic plotlines and allegiances whilst the show was still going! I understand that perspective now, it was a lifetime ago, but during? What was their brain doing for the entire duration of the show? So that's the kind of mainstream audience this series ideally needs to break with. Needless to say, that's an uphill struggle.
First off I'd like to say that it very much appears I was wrong based on my limited experience with the show of Critical Role. Back when I was still watching the show, I'd just gotten through the saga of rescuing Lady Kima from the Mindflayers (that would have been very cool to see recreated) and was between major story arcs. Thus I didn't recognise any of what was going on in Vox Machina episode 1, although I should have known that wouldn't be grounds enough assume this show was running on it's own fumes. Maybe it actually is for the moment, but it clearly won't be for long. Spotting the Briarwoods as a tease for this series, a huge plot piece that was being seeded throughout the early Critical Role episodes, tells me that this is more shaping up to be a stylised cliff-notes of the Vox Machina story (with one obvious character exception) which actually frustrates little ol' me. And I mean only me, because it seems I'm going to spoiling some key moments in the adventure by watching this show. But meh, I've committed so there's no backing out now.
Firstly I want to talk about the dialogue and writing, because it's something I've been most on-the-fence about with this show. This is an aspect that couldn't just be lifted whole-sale from the live shows for several reasons, most key of which being that all those live-streams were off-the-cuff and natural, so it wouldn't work just parroting jokes and quips in a more organised setting. Now with this second part of the first episode, I'm starting to see the characters hit their stride and see them beginning the process becoming endearing. Grog is just on that cusp of being the lovable stupid strong oaf, Scalan seems a touch less relentlessly eccentric than I remember but I think they've left adequate room just in case he goes off on any truly wild capers in the near future. Vex and Vax, look I still don't know which is which, teeter nicely between 'sarcastic' and 'straight man', (even if Laura Bailey's chosen voice makes me wince on some of her more drawn out syllables) and Pike and Keyleth are... there. They'll get their chances to shine, I'm sure. Pike has the potential to be the key component of this group mechanic and I want to see that bought to life.
And now I want to talk about something I absolutely adored from this episode, and something which I don't think even the most curmudgeonly fantasy-hating viewer could deny; this action in this show looks incredible. There were some fighting scenes in the first episode, but that bar brawl was very busy and the battle at the end of the episode was more of a teaser; Part 2 is where we get the main course. Seeing the animation team go all out, with the movement of the characters, mixing one giant 3D monster in a 2D world, the cohesiveness of choreography, the satisfaction of impact, the cleanness of action- this is all beyond what I ever expected. This honestly looks to rival some of the more action-heavy Anime's out there with it's mastery of mostly traditional animation, and the effect is that these fights feel great to watch. There might not be anything excessively clever in the writing for these set pieces, but the eye-candy covers that ground admirably enough on it's own.
To my surprise, this Episode actually saw a resolution to the set-up from the intro, which I found quite surprising given the very real potential this plotline had to last the whole series. I mean, part of me is grateful for how heavily the show tipped it's hand in this storyline from the first episode, it would have been torture to see that dragged out for an 8 episode stretch, but the scale of the threat, and even the staging of that final fight, really felt like it could have been material for a half decent finale. That they didn't go that direction is both interesting and concerning. Because now Vox Machina has set the bar they need to top with the series bow-out in order to make that worthy of closing out the show, or else this series might end up feeling like a string of disparate plotlines. (Which they might end up actually going for, it's hard to tell at this point.)
In terms of supporting cast I think the surrounding talent did decently, and have to put my hands together warmly for a Felicia Day cameo; can't do anything nerd-culture related without her involvement. I just wished for a lot more from (spoilers, I guess) my main man David. You had an iconic English actor in your show and you wasted him on an a two episode bad guy? I don't even think we got to hear his voice in Dragon-form, which is bizarre because I'm almost certain that D&D dragons can talk... yeah, there were some really chatty ones in Baldur's Gate 2! I don't know what I have left to look forward to in the supporting cast of thi- wait a second, why did I instantly get chills when I heard Lady Brairwood's voice? That can't be- oh my god, it's Grey DeLisle! They got Azula up in this show? Okay, sins forgiven, I'm absolutely all in.
One character I'm on the fence about right now, and it starts from his design and bleeds into the characterisation just a tiny bit; is Percy. (Which you may have realised after I totally forgot to mention him in my role call earlier.) There's an obvious anime-style inspiration in the characters for this show, with very thin athletic body-shapes, sharp-faces and even sharper hair, but there's still something of the animator's own thrown in there to keep it feeling 'fantasy' in the more European medieval sense that D&D is based on. Design elements here, hairstyles and elf ears. Except for Percy; he just looks like a stereotypical anime heartthrob snuck out from some action-focused Butler-themed Shonen. It's a small, almost unnoticeable, design clash that throws me out of the moment everytime he's centre screen. And then there's Percy's personality, being the refined-one, angrily embarrassed by his peers, which feeds into that 'uptight British Butler' stereotype perfectly. I know that Percy is due to get some more indepth characterisation, we're doing the Briarwoods afterall, but damned if I'm not going to frown in frustration everytime I see our resident gunslinger go to work.
In summary, I found this episode to be a more complete thesis on everything this show could be and I really liked what I saw. Gripes with certain character designs here and the occasionally flat joke there aside, the raw animation talent going to work on this show is absolutely incredible and on the backs of their work alone this has the opportunity to be a simply great animated action series. If the dialogue can slip out of it's comfort zone going forward I could really start seeing this as truly top-tier entertainment, which is more than I ever imagined a lowly D&D show could become. Ultimately I'm going to have to give-in to the excitement I'm still buzzing from over that stellar action scene and just bump this episode's grade up to a solid A, I'm eager to watch more and hope that somewhere ahead of us we'll have that extra little something waiting to shift this show into 6th gear. I have high hopes. Higher than I do for that live action D&D project that's floating around, what are Wizards thinking? We've been down that road before, it ends... poorly.
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