The Legend of Vox Machina (Season 2): Unlikely Heroes vs. Dragon Supremacy

What happens when a group of unlikely heroes faces off against a quartet of powerful dragons with supremacist goals? Join us in this electrifying episode of the ZONE Podcast, as we revisit the remarkable journey of "The Legend of Vox Machina" from its inception to the thrilling developments of season two. Tinara and Talos Gundam kick things off by sharing their thoughts on the first season, applauding the faithful adaptation of the beloved Critical Role campaign and the captivating character introductions that drew them in.

As the conversation transitions to season two, we dig deep into the evolving story arcs of our favorite characters. Percy’s dark past and quest for vengeance, Keyleth’s struggle with leadership and her Aramente, Pike’s journey of faith, and Scanlan’s shocking revelation of fatherhood—all these threads weave a rich tapestry of storytelling. Grog’s encounter with the sinister Craven Edge sword adds layers of complexity and humor to the narrative, making this season a rollercoaster of emotions and character growth.

Looking ahead, we speculate on the potential future of Critical Role's animated series and the monumental story arcs yet to be explored. From the looming threat of the Chroma Conclave to the enigmatic Cult of Vecna, we ponder how many seasons will be needed to do justice to these epic tales. We also reflect on the creative joy of playing D&D, the thrill of the unexpected, and our excitement for the adventures that await. Don’t forget to stay nerdy and keep an eye on our social media for updates on our latest 3D-printed creations!

Chapters

• 0:02 The Legend of Vox Machina Review
• 11:58 Character Analysis in Season Two
• 28:49 Predicting the Future of Critical Role
• 33:26 Reflections on D&D and Creativity

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

welcome back to the zone podcast where the nerds that geek together stays together. I'm jet black extreme, and joining me is tanara and talos gundam, and today's topic is the legend of box machina. We already did a review on season one, but so it's gonna be more geared towards season two. But since tanara and Talos wasn't on for season 1, I'm going to be asking them how they felt about season 1 before we bleed into season 2. So, without further ado, let's go ahead and zone in on it, starting with Tanara how'd you felt about season 1 of Box Mocking? How'd that played out?

Speaker 2: 0:42

I liked it. It was nice you know getting to know the characters and what. Not as nice you know getting to know the characters and whatnot as someone that you know, I don't know. I guess it was like they did it on YouTube, like they basically like live streamed it first, right.

Speaker 1: 0:56

It was like either. It was like on Twitch, I believe, Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:12

Yeah, okay, yeah, so I um didn't I, you know, didn't listen to that or anything, so I didn't know you know much about it. So it's nice, you know, getting to meet everyone and learn all the stuff. So they did. I feel like they did a pretty good job with that for the first season.

Speaker 1: 1:25

Gotcha, Gotcha and Talos. What was your impression of season?

Speaker 3: 1:34

one Alright. So, as a person who plays D&D, I love it. I really really love it. Don't get me wrong. They captured the essence of it perfectly because this was a campaign from Critical Role. For those that relatively don't know, I believe it is on their YouTube channel as well, I believe, so you can find it over there if you haven't watched their actual campaign. You want wanna watch the actual campaign. I love how Everything fit, like legit I did. I relatively love how everything Fit in season 1, right up to even the character death, so like that, relatively it was worth it. So, as I was saying, even the character depth, so like that, relatively it was worth it. So I was able to say season one basically got a 9 out of 10 for me.

Speaker 1: 2:35

Okay, cool With season one. Even looking back, I'm like, yeah, it was a solid season to it. It was more geared towards Percy and Pike and a little bit of Keyleth, but in this season I would say Percy and Pike are taking the more support role. Keyleth's arc is still kind of bleeding into season two. You know her living up to her potential and destiny and whatnot. Blah, blah, blah. And I want to say it was more geared towards Everybody else when, like Vex, vax, grog and Scanlan's where, okay, they're getting more spotlight in this one.

Speaker 1: 3:21

Without further ado, let's go ahead and get into what's been going on in season two. All right, but season two this time, uh, we got the chroma conclave, uh, rolling about. So it's like these four chromatic dragons that's like essentially dragon supremacists. They want dragons to be the top dogs over all races on the realm, you know. And we got Raishan, a green poison dragon, umbrasil, a black acid dragon, forgo, a white ice dragon, and their leader, thordak, is a red fire dragon. So they are obliterating these cities, uh, casualties and all that. So bots mocking us saving the world from the briarwood. They were like called upon be like hey yo. So, since y'all already saved the world once. How about y'all y'all in the mood to do it again? You know, we got like four dragons like tearing shit up, like we're gonna need y'all to do something about this, and I'm like, uh, well, you know, dragons that's a taller order than vampires, but I guess we'll try. Um well, that's the main plot that they um go through.

Speaker 1: 4:44

Let's talk about some of these characters like mainly the characters where the season kind of centers around. So I want to say, with becks and back it's shown that they are half elves, like that's. I believe that was explained in season one, but it's more so backstories where, okay, uh, human mother, but elven father, and they were like born and raised by their mother for like the first 10 years of their lives until their father was like hold on, I have kids, I'm bringing some, you know, and then that just changed everything. Uh, crazy part is like, so you impregnated this human and call her, or anything. It's like just 10 years later he's like, oh, well, shit, like, uh, I didn't know there was a kid. Like I didn't know I had twins Fuck shit, twins. Yeah, I don't think I did. And well, their father is not. Well, shit, their father. Give this man an award for father of the year because this dude act like he just don't care for his own kids. Um, and then he just got to a point to where vex and vax was like man, you know what? Fuck this guy, we don't need his approval.

Speaker 1: 6:15

And the I want to say it was a fake out death because you were thinking like, oh no, no way, no way, they killed off vex this early in season two. Then I was like, oh wait, that's right, this is dnd to where they have revival spells. She'll just bring them back, but not exactly. It's more like uh, they were at the matron of rave they, excuse me, the matron of ravens domain and Bex was dying and her soul was like being offered up to the matron there. And I like how Bex was like take me instead you, raven bitch. And she was like alright, so gave him the cloak and whatnot. He had this whole artist way. Okay, he got me one with the Raven with the wings and all that. I thought it was badass and I also kind of like how it's getting more obvious that Vex and Percy is going to be like a couple. You know, like when Vex was like being seduced by this dark nope, I guess that guy was. And she was like no, my heart belongs to someone else. And then they panned to Perth.

Speaker 1: 7:31

They were like yeah but, uh, how y'all feel about the twins. It's real well in this show yeah, yeah, but uh, how y'all feeling about all the twins?

Speaker 2: 7:51

oh, you know, um, he's obviously a rogue. I'm pretty sure she's a ranger, right. Yeah, yeah, um, and it's like, but, and with him getting that cloak and stuff just fits so perfectly with being, you know, a rogue, because it's got that sneakiness and stuff and, um, you know, working basically for death, like I feel like that's you know the rogue. You know, main dream is like yes, yeah, fellows, your thoughts.

Speaker 3: 8:29

I mean, once again I say like it is, it is what it is with them, like their story as such is so far, so good. I love the way the characters have been developed. I love it, I do. Characters have been developed. I love it, I do, I really really do. It is, it's so good. Y'all have no idea, like, uh, yeah, I have no idea it's so good. So I really love the story. I love the way the characters have been developed a lot in here, so I can't complain.

Speaker 1: 9:06

One question before we move on to another, the part where Vax would you know, I think Vax is the older twin, like by a few seconds or so, twin, like by a few seconds or so and, um, the thing with vex and vax is that, uh, vax feels like he's nothing without his sister and I'm like, how do y'all feel about that? Like, does it feel like a little too codependent? Like, do you think he's gonna have this art to wear? Okay, well, I love my sister, but I believe I can't live on, uh, if anything happens to her, you know something like that, to where, like, he'll feel a little bit more independent from, because that one part, to where he just felt like, oh you know, I don't know if I can go on without you sister, like that sort of thing. How, what do y'all think about that?

Speaker 2: 10:02

I feel like that happened. It seems to happen a lot with twins in like tv shows and stuff, where um one is like pretty dependent on the other, like they think they have to have to protect them, or like they have to protect them, or like they're the only person they have in the world or whatever, and then the other who's more independent, um, and so I feel like that happens a lot in um media and whatnot you know, was there like crazy how immediately I was thinking of fred and george from harry potter.

Speaker 1: 10:38

I was like, oh, no one, the twins died. I'm like it feels so off to where. I'm like, ah, it doesn't feel right, you know. So I kind of get it. I kind of get it. Uh, who else do I want to talk about? Okay, you know what? Let's talk about key lip a little bit.

Speaker 1: 10:58

So key lip, um thing is she's like have this connection to where, uh, between the air and fire elements, before um vilia, the uh parts, and into her, uh aramente, like there's this whole thing going on, like you know, druid type shit, and essentially she gets to this part where she going into this fire plane and then I guess she uh used her magic to create this fire construct, to help uh heal up the whole rift and everything. Um, I kind of like that. I kind of like how she getting this arts way, she's supposed to be the leader of Vox Machina. So I'm like I don't know, like I mean, I don't dislike Keyleth, but I'm feeling like every time I think of the leader of Vox Machina, for some reason I kind of gravitate towards Percy.

Speaker 1: 11:58

I'm gonna talk about him. Oh, no, no, I talked about him enough in um season one, uh, to where you know, he had this whole revenge arc and against the bright wolves, and the only thing you got going on now is to seek revenge on the doctor and whoever else is on his gun, on his pepper box. Uh, the cursed pepper box.

Speaker 2: 12:17

I kind of like that.

Speaker 1: 12:18

Oh, that reminds me, I kind of like the opening things where you see all the characters and whatnot, but you see percy and as soon as uh, he like, kind of like holds up his gun and then it kind of fades to like black and white, uh, you kind of see the rim of his glasses, but you also see this shadowy figure behind him. I kind of like that part, uh, to where it just kind of sums up his whole arc. Right there it's where he's trying to hunt down everybody who wronged him and blah, blah, blah. Um, I talked a little bit more about britain. I thought it would right now.

Speaker 1: 12:53

But, uh, keelib, uh, I'm not convinced that she's a natural born leader, so it's going to take me a while to kind of get used to her being the leader, or, hopefully, as the season goes, like I love how I chose today just out of random, to talk about season 2 and surprise, surprise, we get info on season 3 coming. In fact, I think season 3 is coming. I think they said something this year oh, october 3rd, okay, okay, cool, cool, cool, alright, well, I guess we're going to talk about it later on this year. Anyways, I love it, I'm ready for it, let's do it. But then again, season two came out in 2023, so as we were counting out for Han, but I'm glad season three is coming. Any thoughts on Keyleth?

Speaker 3: 14:04

Nope, not a bit yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:08

Like you were saying. You know she has that, the Aramente or whatever it was.

Speaker 2: 14:17

And you know she's been like putting it off and putting it off because she's, you know, she's afraid she's going to fail it and stuff. And then your father shows up at the portal to the fire plane and stuff and he's like, oh, you know, what do you have in your whatever? You know better at fire than all of us. And it's like, yeah, you you'd think that, wouldn't you? And it's like you know she hasn't seen her family or anything since she left just go do it, and she still hasn't done it.

Speaker 2: 15:03

Um, I don't remember how long exactly it's been it's been a while, and so it's been a while. She finally sees her dad again and he's like oh, you know just what we needed someone who's done her training stuff.

Speaker 1: 15:21

And she's like yeah, all I know for sure is that she was very young in the flashback and then he just you know her being like a fairly young woman, so I imagine at least like 10 years or so well, I mean, in that flashback it was her mom that was leaving for that one.

Speaker 2: 15:41

That wasn't when she was leaving yet yeah, yeah but um, but yeah, so it's like I like her um. You know her is the coolest.

Speaker 1: 15:58

I just don't dislike her. It's more like I'm just not impressed With her so far, like, yeah, even though she got the skills and what not, it just seems like she kinda um Hesitates and kinda Bums with the bag sometimes. So I'm like, um, I'm gonna need more Seasons to be sold on Keyleth now. Um, I'm pretty much already said what I said on Percy Pike. Pike mainly had her arc in season one to where, you know, with her faith and whatnot, and now she's like more committed to being the designated cleric in the party, you know, the spiritual guide and whatnot. Like, she even said so in one of the episodes.

Speaker 1: 16:45

Not a whole lot going on with Pike, unless you're referring to the possibility of her hooking up with Scanlan. And okay, let's go ahead and talk about Scanlan. We know Scanlan is this known bard where he got, got his jokes, he got his debauchery going on. But then, like in the second half of season two, we find out that, oh shit, he had the daughter that he didn't know about and he almost tried to bang her. But, um, he didn't know, he didn't know, but uh, basically his daughter was like grilling him for like, oh well, you weren't there for, uh, me and my mother. And that's just the way you are. You just always you just can't commit you all. Whenever things get hard, you always quit and run away. And he almost did that um in this season. But he was like nah, you know what, and for a penny and for a pound type thing. So I guess you can say scanlon got kind of that's another thing. Like scanlon, I think he keelib and I guess percy um, even though percy's um arc was like more fleshed out in season one. At this point some of the characters are going to feel like they're going to have this static arc that's just bleeding throughout the season but they're not going to have a whole lot of spotlight at this point.

Speaker 1: 18:18

And speaking of which Grog? Now, I like G grog. He's funny, uh, uh, he grow beer first of all and looking good too. Um, he also get this new sword craving edge and it kind of forced him to do like some blood lust and whatnot and he kind of ripped, you know, kind of like uh with venom, to where you have the symbiote and uh, it just makes you more violent and whatnot. So it it's going to get a little out of hand. But then again they had that whole drawback with. He just got all skinny and shit and at the tail end of the season it was like him against his uncle for control over this barbarian horde that they're leading their leading.

Speaker 1: 19:19

And it was also he had this, these gauntlets. That's gonna be vestiges, I guess. Yeah, yeah, you know how uh characters usually have like this one object that's what will be like their main thing. And uh, the gauntlets was a vestige and grog needed those to go forward with the chroma conclave and whatnot. I kind of like, uh what he had going on in this season. But uh, enough about my ramblings. Any thoughts on Pike, scanlan and Grog?

Speaker 2: 19:58

That's how we got to see a bit into Grog's past and learn that he and Pike have been friends for a long time. I mean, it never doesn't actually say how long, but she was a kid when they first met and now she's, you know, full grown and whatnot and it was sort of it was cool seeing their sort of past a little bit there that's okay okay uh Talos.

Speaker 1: 20:30

Any thoughts on the three characters?

Speaker 3: 20:33

no cause. Once again I've covered them all. They are all they did the characters well. Any thoughts on the three characters? No, because once again I've covered them all. They did the characters well. For me, like I say, coming from a person who has done, I relatively can't judge them based off of the show. I judge them based off of their D&D characters and the D&D characters were done perfectly, which they're based off of. Like they're completely down to the last freaking skill point. They're done based off of them and they were done. You know so well, so so well, so I can't complain hell yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:12

And also let's give a round of applause to the cast for voicing the characters Laura Bailey, talisa and Jeffy hope I pronounced that correctly, sorry if I didn't. Ashley Johnson, liam O'Brien, marisha Ray, sam Riegel, travis Willingham, matt Mercer of course, yeah, round of applause to them. Sam Reichel, travis Willingham, matt Mercer, of course, yeah, round of applause to them, because the voices made it special with Grog. Travis Willingham was very good with Grog. To where, like I want to rage? Oh yeah, I believe that.

Speaker 2: 21:57

When I was re-watching at this time that character in the Feywild basically that was Puck. I was on the re-watch this time I was like, wait, why is that voice so familiar? Amazon has that whole x-ray thing that shows you who's voicing the people currently on the screen and I was like, oh my god, it's billy boyd. I was like I don't know why I didn't catch that the first time, but I was like, oh my god, that's why.

Speaker 1: 22:26

That's why it's so familiar um, damn, you know what I'm so used to having koki gatsu on to where you will like, go into high detail about the characters and whatnot, like, uh, I'm not used to blazing through them this fast, I'm sorry. Oh yeah, like I said in the beginning, though, we pretty much have it to where the party is going up against these four dragons, and of course, they have the typical D&D shenanigans, the dungeon crawls, obtaining new magical items and all that. So it's like the typical tropes, uh, magical items and all that. So it's like the typical tropes. But yeah, like I would say that if anybody wants to get into D&D, uh, I would say I won't say Vox Machina will give you a perfectly good idea. Because I want to say like, uh, playing D dnd is way different from watching an animated show based off dnd. I would say that, um, if anything, this is a perfect visual representation of what dnd is like. Like, even down to some of the meta jokes that in dnd, some of them like get leaked into season one, season two, maybe season three, and I'm all for it.

Speaker 1: 24:01

Like, I honestly can't say I hated this season. It was actually pretty good, like. I mean, of course, it was good season one and season two. Um can't even say I have any bias towards which one was better. Season 1 and season 2 holds up on their own Just fine, of course, with the animation and effects and, once again, the comedic Beats and the pacing. Yeah, the pacing was fairly good. I didn't feel bored watching Boss Mocking Up, especially where it seemed like the rest of the party Is getting a little spotlight. So it kind of felt like Vex and Vax are having their thing, grog is having their thing, scanlan is having his thing and everybody was like doing something okay, okay yeah, it didn't feel dull, it didn't feel too rushed, it was kind of like gold.

Speaker 1: 25:02

It was like it's just right. Oh yes, trinket was pretty good, like I kind of like oh how, first you wanted to add like man we got, we don't really need your help.

Speaker 1: 25:16

And then they just get into a situation that got a little worse. I think it was like a slime creature they were up against and then Trigger was like oh well, you know, I thought I wasn't needed and I was like fine, can you help us please? Can you help us? Please Um, honestly yeah, that's pretty much what I gotta say about Season 2 in a nutshell Like it was pretty good, like I feel you more than.

Speaker 1: 25:54

Like I won't say that Just because we don't have a whole lot to say that I oh well, it wasn't that good. But like sometimes you just gotta say, hey, man, I liked it and I don't really need to go into like this whole Tech talk about it.

Speaker 3: 26:14

But yeah, I mean okay. So once again, right, I don't have anything on anybody in particular. That is just oh, okay, this is just standout-ish, this is relative. No, as a whole, this whole thing is very, very good, like for those. I can go into a lot more detail on the D&D aspect of it. Yeah, it was like okay, chromatic dragons, because that's literally what they were. These were not metallics, these were chromatics. For those of you that don't know, chromatic is dealing with the colors red, blue, yellow, stuff of that nature. Those Metallics are the ones that are based off of metals like brass, copperlar, those dragons. And now the thing is with the chromatics. Chromatics are typically evil. They're always evil. Not all dragons. A lot of folks don't realize that not all dragons are evil. Chromatic dragons typically favor the evil side of things, while their metallic brethren favor the evil side of things, while their metallic brethren favor the good side of things. Don't get me wrong. Some of them still are relatively bad and have their own typical things. But you know.

Speaker 1: 27:26

Or they can be neutral and just want to be left alone with their gold in their fucking mountain.

Speaker 3: 27:33

And so the fact that they went with the traditional hey, you know, the big bad at the end of this is a, you know, a dope fire dragon Like, yeah, those are the typical ones, those are relatively like, yeah, that's a strong bitch. And I was like, okay, cool, I'm very much happy about it, I love it, love it. Like there's nothing I can say that would complain about this. So, like, I throw my characters I'm not gonna front, I throw my characters under the bus a lot of times and this right here for this season, relatively, it shows, okay, hey, this is what literally happens when you have a nice team but your DM literally throws you off your bus. So, you know, they were strong enough, don't get me wrong, they were strong enough, but it's at the same time, it was like, yeah, we just dealt with something, we just dealt with losing a person and ooh, you know, like there's no rest for the wicked. So that's how that went. And hey, I really too, like I said, I loved it. I loved it so much.

Speaker 1: 28:46

I loved it so much. Oh, hell, yeah. Trying to look into seeing how things going to play out, it would seem like, okay, the Chroma Conclave story arc was the. There was more story arcs and I guess they just jump right into the Briarwood story arc in season one. I'm not entirely sure if they're gonna circle back into Kraghammer or Vasselheim, but Briarwood and Chroma was third and Fourth, so if they're Just starting from Briarwood Onward, so the next one should be Tarion Durrington, and then we have the Cult of Vecna and after that they just Did a whole bunch of one shots. That's where I'm critical role, by the way. But if anything, I guess you can say that if they're going off how this played out, then we're going to have at least season Like see, we already know season three got greenlit, so I'm just trying to think four, maybe five seasons total.

Speaker 3: 30:00

I'll say, you got about maybe four or five seasons total.

Speaker 1: 30:04

I can see that Because anything like I was feeling with the boys I'm not going to say anything about the boys until we do the review, and I can't wait for the review, by the way but honestly I can't even fault them review, by the way but honestly I can't even fault them for wanting to wrap things up at season five as planned, because I felt like with the boys it's so good that I felt like they just kept going on past season five. At some point it's gonna feel so watered down that, uh, even I'm like kind of siding with some folks saying like, oh well, season four kind of fell off, like no, no, season four was a slow burn to what's going to happen in season five. But if they went on past season five, then I'll be like, yeah, I think y'all kind of falling off, trying to keep the whole thing going. But I'm like you know what, nah bro, like, if you want to do like a short and sweet kind of thing, where like five seasons of eight episodes, that's cool with me. Like, at least this way is like better to go off in a vein than in a whimper.

Speaker 1: 31:06

So same thing with this show. It's where, um, do whatever you want, do whatever you want, but personally, um, don't feel like you're overextending just to either get more money or just to stay relevant. I'm like, hey, man, sometimes the short and simple stories will capture the hearts of millions way after its conclusion if you just stick to keeping it like concise and powerful and potent. You know what I'm saying? Um, that's why people were like getting a little pissed off with the whole pirates of the caribbean franchise or maybe the fast and furious franchise to a extent to where I'm like, okay, the first couple, fine, cool, awesome, but y'all gonna have to cut it out at some point and I really hate to say that, but it just really get into that point where, yeah, sometimes to an extent I can tell that y'all gonna have to cut it out a little bit before it gets a little worse.

Speaker 3: 32:17

But with this right here, I mean this is what I say, this is D&D. With this right here, it's not something that you can just be like, oh OK, I got to worry about this getting stale. If it's getting stale dnd, you relatively can't get stale with it because hey, there are homebrews, there's, there's legit stories if you just want to go that route. But you know like there's nothing you can get stale with. There's so many ways. As long as you are writing yourself, as long as you're basically can come up with your stories, yeah, you're good.

Speaker 1: 32:51

So ultimately, it just comes down to the writer's creativity. I mean not to say that in a bad way, but it's just. Yeah, that's just. It just ultimately comes down to where they want to go with this. Danara, you had anything you want to add on to all this?

Speaker 2: 33:11

No, I think it's about good. I mean, it was really good. I'm excited for season three. I haven't seen the actual campaign thing, so it'll be interesting to see what happens for me.

Speaker 1: 33:26

So yeah, like, honestly, at this point, if they're going to animate the campaign, I'd rather wait until fox machina, the animated series um conclude and then maybe I'll um watch the live stream episodes and see how it compares like like a epilogue party in a sense. Um, but no, I don't, I don't even fault you. Like I didn't watch them either, but I'm interested, but I just didn't get around to it, just wasn't interested at the time, like I was. I was like bro, not gonna lie, it's how I feel about magic. It's how I feel about some sports. It's how I feel about a lot of things. Like sometimes it's more fun to play the game than watch other people play the game. Like I'm not gonna sit there and watch people play dnd when instead I could just homebrew my own campaign and get my friends to play dnd with me. I'm like, hey, man, instead of watching people doing it, I can just do it myself. But no, you know what, for real, though, that's all I got to say on season two. I can't say Pretty good season, can't wait for season three, or however long they're going to keep doing it.

Speaker 1: 34:49

In the meantime, just remember to Stay nerdy. We do have Some 3D prints In the works when I'm working on dice and Other things for y'all nerds. Yeah, like Between me and Tattooed Enigma, we're gonna be working on some D&D Magic Gathering type stuff for y'all to go out to the local game stores and roll your dice and whatnot. So follow us on social media for more information. Remember to stay nerdy and that great things are coming. We're going to go ahead and zone out of here. So remember to have a good morning, a good afternoon, nerdy, and that great things are coming. We're gonna go ahead and zone out of here. So remember to have a good morning, a good afternoon and a good evening you.