TV Review: "The Legend of Vox Machina: Season 3" (Episodes 7-13)
The second half of the third season of the hit Amazon fantasy series heightens the stakes in every way, with a spectacular payoff that ensures its place in the pantheon of great fantasy shows.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the third season of Vox Machina follow.
Well, we’ve now come to the end of another season of The Legend of Vox Machina, which I personally think is one of the great animated series of the 21st century. This is one of those shows which manages to be filled with both action-packed sequences and moments, all conveyed in remarkably textured and fluid animation. Moreover, it also has stakes, both emotional and narrative, and that to me is always the mark of really strong fantasy storytelling. Now that the third season has come to a thrilling–and sometimes heartbreaking conclusion–it’s time to review the last half of the season (if you want to read my review of the first half, it’s here).
The first half of the season certainly had a number of shocking secrets and reveals, but the back half of the season is, if anything, even better and more devastating than the earlier half, as Vox Machina enlists everyone they can to try to defeat Thordak and his monstrous progeny. You haven’t seen battlefield devastation until you’ve watched a monster like Thordak unleash fiery death on everyone who stands before him, while his children continue to devour anyone and everyone in their path. This is the kind of sequence that literally keeps you on the edge of your seat, biting your knuckles as you wonder just who is going to manage to survive an event like this and who is going to perish in a conflagration.
For all that this season is heavy on the action, it also gives us further insight into Vox Machina and their motivations, and everyone has more than a little bit of heartbreak to endure before they finally get what initially appears to be their happily-after-after. Arguably the most devastating moment in the entire third season is the one in which Percy is seemingly slain by the nefarious Ripley, who spurns his offer of salvation. Of course, he’s eventually resurrected by his friends, but Vex bears the scars from violating his oath to the Matron, and I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of his affliction. Nothing in this universe can be done without a price, and that definitely includes bringing a soul back from the dead.
In some ways this entire season has been about the bonds that bind the members of Vox Machina, both to the group and to one another. There are two major romances–between Vex and Percy and between Vax and Keyleth–which don’t feel forced but instead seem like natural progressions for their characters and actually lead to some pretty remarkable character development. Other emotional beats are more unexpected but still moving. Perhaps no one surprises in this regard quite like Scanlan, who realizes how much he truly loves his daughter and wants to be a part of her life, even if she seems to want nothing to do with him. It’s rare to see this irascible character actually care about something other than boozing and whoring and singing, so much so that it’s only the voice of his daughter that manages to bring him back from the brink of death.
In addition to its remarkably mature storytelling, Vox Machina also features some top-notch animation. I’ve always thought that there’s something innately magical about hand drawn animation, and I will die on this hill. The series wisely limits its use of CGI for the dragons of the Chroma Conclave, which helps to set them apart as creatures who are beyond the scale of the human. There are also some stunningly beautiful sequences in this back half of the season, with Keyleth’s attempt to track down Raishan and Vax’s effort to rescue Percy from Orthax’s prison being especially noteworthy.
The remarkable animation is matched by equally stellar voice acting from the various members of the cast. The late Lance Reddick is the perfect person to voice Thordak, and the same goes for Cree Summer as Raishan. You can just feel their villainy as their voices slither in your brain and into your lizard brain. And, while Thordak is undoubtedly a villain and his death is more than earned, there’s still something more than a little sad about his ultimate demise, his body rendered into nothing more than a beautiful ruin.
But, of course, he’s not the true villain of this season. That honor goes to Raishan who, it turns out, has been manipulating Vox Machina all along (something that Keyleth realized but could not persuade anyone else to believe). The scene in which she casts a spell that allows her to inhabit Thordak’s damaged body is horrifying and exhilarating, a lovely injection of eldritch horror in the series’ DNA. I mean, it doesn’t get any more terrifying than a dragon body reanimated and inhabited by another dragon, does it? Fortunately for everyone concerned, Keyleth is no longer the shy little thing she used to be, and she is the one who ultimately banishes Raishan for good. It’s a perfectly-executed climax to her story, giving her the chance to be the hero she’s been all along.
By the time that the season has come to a close, we have been through quite a lot. I think this season has been remarkable for the extent to which it has given its characters time to grow and change, to find new kinds of strength that they didn’t know they possessed. Like the very best fantasy, Vox Machina gives us characters that we can care about and in whom we can be invested, and it’s really quite an accomplishment that it still feels so fresh and exhilarating even three seasons in (I say this as someone who is not at all familiar with the D&D campaigns on which it is based). By the time the final episode concluded, I was left wanting more, and I was immensely pleased that the series had been renewed.
Though I have no doubt that the creators were fairly confident that the series would get a renewal, nothing is really certain in this age of streaming, and so it’s fitting that the season ends in such a way that it can satisfy on its own while also leaving plenty of room for another. As we all know by now, nothing inspires an eruption of chaos like a group of adventurers collectively deciding that it’s time to hang up their spurs and devote themselves to other pursuits. Whatever comes along, though, I’m absolutely sure that Vox Machina will be more than able to deal with it.