The Legend of Vox Machina - D&D cartoon coming to Amazon Prime 28th Jan 2022

[MDY]

Mighty Nein (the CR campaign that followed Vox Machina) series announced..

 

[Vespa Alex]

Nice! I think that’ll make a better cartoon than VM

[Captain Kelsten]

I enjoyed Mighty Nein more than Vox Machina for the most part. More interesting characters, more interesting stories. 

[Vespa Alex]

13 minutes ago, Captain Kelsten said:

I enjoyed Mighty Nein more than Vox Machina for the most part. More interesting characters, more interesting stories. 

Yep, and probably more accessible for a wider audience.  

[MDY]

Relative scales(!) of the Conclave..


 

 

[Benny]

Still avoiding spoilers, but this week's trio of episodes were bloody brilliant.

 

In episode 6 in particular

 

Spoiler

That whole fight was just some absolute tippety top tier stuff. They are masterfully directed.

 

Also, I guessed very early on that the "riddle" would involve Scanlan doing literally what he did, but it was no less great to see that perfect plot beat coming

 

[Timbuktu]

Spoiler

Thought the Sphinx went out a bit too easy.  Never got hurt for thousands of years because he never fought a dragon?

 

episode six.

 

[Benny]

3 hours ago, Timbuktu said:

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Thought the Sphinx went out a bit too easy.  Never got hurt for thousands of years because he never fought a dragon?

 

episode six.

 

 

Spoiler

Isn't that part of the riddle: "no-one has wounded me for thousands of years" didn't necessarily mean physically. Plus he has been down there a long time.

 

[IcEBuRN]

How is this now? I gave up on the first season because it felt cheesy as shit. Maybe I was expecting too much Arcane in it.

[Benny]

The first season turned down the cheese rapidly as it went on. This season is now only as cheesy as something like Avatar/Korra ever was and is generally fairly tonally serious and silly at the right moments, so it's just the right balance. But starting this one after not watching the previous would be somewhat pointless as it's a direct continuation of various character narratives.

 

I personally have enjoyed this far more than Arcane because Arcane felt a bit self important about itself at times.

[Mogster]

I've just started to get back into the first season, having watched the first three episodes or so when they came out, and it definitely improves as it goes on. 

 

That's probably not too different to the average DnD campaign to be fair, and everyone settles down a bit and rounds out their characters.

[Timbuktu]

10 hours ago, Benny said:

 

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Isn't that part of the riddle: "no-one has wounded me for thousands of years" didn't necessarily mean physically. Plus he has been down there a long time.

 

It was probably just how abrupt it was, the character deserved more time and for once the show felt like it was rushing things with the episode shifting it’s attention between a few character arcs and none seem to get enough time.

 

Overall I am enjoying it and I would concur with the comparison with Avatar TLA as a easy to watch adventure.  As I said though, it runs at a faster pace and doesn’t have TLA’s ‘filler’ episodes that let characters have a breather and grow organically.  I love the action in this but characters seem go through changes main depending on the artefacts they get their hands on.  I haven’t looked into the what people say about this show too much or followed the original D&D stuff so it might have already been said,  but I wish this show had a version with less gore and bad language so that I could want my kid like I can with Avatar.  I don’t think those elements add that much.  It’s not like Invincible whether the gore is half the point,  but those things seems to be there to fit in with other popular Amazon shows.

 

Arcane has more style and polish, but I don’t really care for the main characters.  

[Benny]

Yeah I honestly think the show made a mistake trying to be edgy and "adult" with the gore and swearing and the initial tone, because the writing is good enough to carry it as a show for a wider audience, but they've kind of shot themselves in the foot with that and will have to run with it.

 

It does definitely feel a little rushed, but I think that's becoming an issue with a lot of series these days when they can't commit themselves to multiple 24 episode seasons like Avatar.

[Captain Kelsten]

When the actors swear and do dumb shit in the live D&D show it’s organic, funny and silly. When they then replicate that in the cartoon, it feels off and forced. My kid would absolutely love this but yeah, the swearing and gore mean that’s not going to happen. 

[MDY]

Oh god.. the 'Making my way' travel sequence..  
 

Spoiler

♫Over rocky roads and rivers.. Trudge along this twistin land
Just two wondering souls and a big ole dummy.. Ridin' on a magic hand

I'm makin' my way
I'm makin' my way
From the top of this shitty mountain
To the bottom of this goddamn bay
I'm makin'my way♫

 

And again from the watch party..

Spoiler

 

 

[Benny]

S2E7

 

Spoiler

The drug trip oh my God

 

Visually spectacular as well as funny.

 

[smac]

Bloody hell. They had to end that triplet of episodes on that cliffhanger. I missed watching over the weekend, and really got into Grog's backstory. Now I have to wait 'til Friday?  Boo.

[MDY]

Matt, Travis and Marisha lose their minds.. 

 

 

[Captain Kelsten]

Incredible final 3 episodes for season 2. Going to make the wait for 3 even more difficult. Just hope the quality doesn’t slip now they’re also making a season on Mighty Nein. Considering the chroma conclave/search for vestiges was where I lost steam with the original campaign, this series has done a great job of tightening it up and getting in just the essentials. 

[Benny]

S2E10

 

Spoiler

Some Ninja Scroll shit going down there. Awesome fights.

 

The song at the end was ridiculous.

 

[Clipper]

5 hours ago, Captain Kelsten said:

Incredible final 3 episodes for season 2. Going to make the wait for 3 even more difficult. Just hope the quality doesn’t slip now they’re also making a season on Mighty Nein. Considering the chroma conclave/search for vestiges was where I lost steam with the original campaign, this series has done a great job of tightening it up and getting in just the essentials. 

It has but to be honest with tens of hours of streams to condense it couldn't do anything else. It is the equivalent of turning the Lord of the Rings trilogy into a blipvert

 

[Benny]

S2E11

 

Spoiler

That "plan" and the dragon and Pike's reaction had me in stitches.

 

Such a shame you never get that kind of thing in Marvel films

 

[Benny]

I basically never skip the into credits to this show. I think it's one of the best out there.

[Benny]

Great finale as well. It'll be a long wait to finally finish that story now - it's always annoying when it cuts halfway through an arc, as you don't keep that momentum with the character development.

[Ran]

Can only agree. It's been condensed perfectly, mostly minor changes (though I  prefer how some things came about on the stream the alterations they have made are never less than totally sensible and work well).

 

Namely (ignore if you are animated show only)

Spoiler

Vax's wings was a brilliant moment in the stream with Gilmore and on the back of the Rakshasa encounters but it's naturally been lost in condensing things.

 

I may be misremembering the Kevdak fight but I think on the stream Vex pocket dimensions Grog to save his life and then rather than it being a plan he forcibly smashes his way out to atom bomb Kevdak which was awesome! It was still good though.

I also think the condensing and editing has massively improved Keyleth as a character and really showcases Marisha well.

[smac]

On 10/02/2023 at 18:49, Benny said:

S2E11

 

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That "plan" and the dragon and Pike's reaction had me in stitches.

 

Such a shame you never get that kind of thing in Marvel films

 

I just watched the start. Scanlon: … 'Bert?' 

[MDY]

Oh this is a lovely touch..

 

Scanlan's book from the brief dream sequence.. Someone has decoded the text and it is part of the letter that Patrick Rothfuss's guest character wrote to Keyleth in the stream.. (That character would most likely have appeared already if he was going to feature in the adaptation, but we get this as a nice Easter egg instead..)

 

[Lorfarius]

Really good interview with the show creators about the season.

[MDY]

Interview with Sam on the soundtrack.. plus news of an amazing vinyl release of Season 1's music on zoetrope discs.. (Though the limited preorders old out instantly..)

https://gizmodo.com/legend-of-vox-machina-vinyl-critial-role-vinyl-reveal-1850125187

 

 

 

 

 

[Jonnysaxc]

Really enjoy this as an updated version of the d&d cartoon of the 80s , by which i mean it is genuinely great to watch but has no sense of danger to the main characters.

 

There are two aspects that make me want to be dissolved by a gelatinous cube:
 

The swearing seems so out of place, totally unnecessary and embarrassing to the level of “excuse me, please can i ask where the fucking mushrooms are”. 

The tired “character appears dead, is not dead “ routine. Is this happening to reflect dice throws from the campaign because it is extremely overused. 
 

i am aware of critical roll as a result of this series, does no character die or fail in the campaign this is based on , do they just keep on coming out on top and getting more powerful?