TV Review: "The Legend of Vox Machina: Season 3" (Episodes 1-6)
The animated Amazon series goes from strength to strength in its third outing, skillfully blending magnificent action with compelling personal drama and rich fantasy storytelling.
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Like a lot of other The Rings of Power fans, I was more than a little devastated when the sprawling, ambitious series ended its second season, leaving us all in a limbo space while we wait for another two years to return to this particular version of Middle-earth. Fortunately, Amazon has really taken the lead when it comes to fantasy series and so, close on the heels of the conclusion of The Rings of Power, it began releasing episodes from the third season of The Legend of Vox Machina, and I was more than ready to return to this world and to spend more time with these characters.To be clear: before watching the first season I had never heard of Critical Role, and I was only passingly familiar with the conventions of Dungeons & Dragons and its various properties (despite the fact that I’ve been a devotee of fantasy for most of my life). Thus, I have always enjoyed the show simply as a fantasy adventure, without feeling the need or desire to fully immerse myself in the lore behind it.
The third season picks up with our band of heroes continuing to wage war against the malevolent dragons, who are led by the monstrous tyrant Thordak (magnificently and menacingly voiced by the late, great Lance Reddick), who aims to unleash his clutch of eggs on the world. This is quite a tall order even for Vox Machina, however, particularly since they both have to try to find a way of fighting back against beings that are almost invulnerable to attack but also have to contend with various dramas of their own.
As has been the case from the very beginning, the animation in this series is nothing short of stunning. The characters are rendered with an exquisite level of detail, and I’m particularly pleased at the use of hand-drawn animation to bring them all to such memorable life. I’m almost impressed with the CGI used to create Thordak and the other dragons–particularly the ice-breathing behemoth Vorugal–who truly do seem like elemental forces of doom. Every time one of them appears on the screen I feel a pleasurable thrill of fear and this, to me, is the surest sign that this series knows how to create a compelling villain.
Even though the conflict with Thordak is obviously the overarching plotline this season, for me the strongest and most interesting episode of the first half of the third season is the one in which half of the gang ends up going to hell itself in pursuit of a suit of armor that will, it’s hoped, give them at least some how of resisting Thordak’s fiery breath. Once there, however, their task becomes more complicated by both the sheer preponderance of demons that call the place home and by the presence of a sinister devil with designs on Pike in particular.
To begin with, there’s the way that Vox Machina depicts Hells of Despath. There’s no sanitizing of the infernal realm here. This is truly a world of torment, where eldritch and Lovecraftian horrors–all tentacles and multiple eyes and squishy, slithering bodies–feast on and torment the souls of the dead. This sequence reminded me more than a little of Gendy Tartakovsky’s Primal, another animated series that never shies away from the brutal and the disgusting in its depiction of alternate worlds.
It all leads up to the group’s confrontation with a handsome devil named Zerxus Ilerez, voiced by Luis Carazo. With his saturnine features and his large twisted horns, he is very much what one would expect of such a devilish figure, but there’s much more to this infernal being than meets the eye. Yes, he tries (and, arguably, succeeds) in planting seeds of doubt in Pike’s mind regarding her faith in the Everlight, but he also has a tragic backstory of his own, and he ended up making a deal with the devil of his own in an attempt to save his husband and child, only for them to both grow old and die and forget about him. I’ve always loved the way that Vox Machina incorporates queerness into the fabric of its world with remarkable subtlety, and I really enjoyed the way that this storyline gave us a queer villain who’s more than just a punchline or a stereotype. You know that I love me a good tragic queer baddie, and Vox Machina more than delivers.
Pike’s struggle with her religious faith is just one of the many personal trials and heartbreaks that our characters have experienced this season. One of the more compelling stories involves Scanlan’s (so-far failed) efforts to reconnect with his daughter, a failure on his part that clearly haunts him much more than he’s willing to admit. It’s quite refreshing to see the ever-confident Scanlan show a more sensitive side to his personality. Vulnerability ends up being quite a good look on him as it turns out.
I’ll admit that I’m not particularly invested in the two romance storylines that are also a key part of this season. I love Percy, and I love Vex, and I love them together, but I’m just not that invested in whether they end up being a true couple or remain in a sort of friends-with-benefits arrangement. The same goes for Keyleth and Vax'ildan. For me the most interesting is the sapphic bond between Allura and Kima (played with great panache by Indira Varma and Stephanie Beatriz, who clearly have a very complicated history. I hope we get to see more of them as the season progresses.
The thing I admire most about The Legend of Vox Machine is it’s the type of series that manages to appeal to both fans of the original campaigns and also people, like me, who just enjoy watching a well-animated and compellingly told fantasy series. I mean, what’s not to love about a show that gives a titanic, no-holds-barred battle between an ice-breathing dragon and a giant monstrosity from Hell? Their duel was arguably the highlight of the season, showcasing the series at its artistic best and, juxtaposed with the more emotionally resonant storylines, it demonstrates the extent to which Vox Machina is some of the best fantasy storytelling currently on television.