The continent of Tal’Dorei is under siege by a malevolent
and powerful evil that is decimating souls brave enough to stand against
it. Desperate, the rulers of Tal’Dorei
turn to the only remaining option they have: a crew of rowdy, drunken, no F’s
giving mercenaries known as Vox Machina.
An Elven Ranger, her Rogue brother, a Cleric, a Gunslinger, a Bard, a
Druid and a Barbarian who are prone to messing up quests more than completing
them are all that stand between Tal’Dorei and total annihilation…yeah when you
put it like, Tal’Dorei might be in trouble.
And thus begins the Legend of Vox Machina…God help us all.
As big a nerd as I am, I hardly dabble in Dungeons and
Dragons.
I admire the game, the
creativity that goes into each campaign and have watched many of them played out
among friends but I’ve never been able to commit to the phenomenon.
But I know plenty who have and all of them
have recommended this series to me (some of you reading this know who you are).
The Legend of Vox Machina is based on a
D&D campaign played in the Web Series Critical Role, whose cast of players
includes many famous voice actor friends including Laura Bailey & Travis
Willinghem (Fullmetal Alchemist), Ashley Johnson (Star Wars: The Clone Wars)
and Matthew Mercer (Overatch).
This
Kickstart funded animated adventure has become one of Amazon’s biggest
hits.
Do the first couple of episodes
justify jumping into this quest with the Fantasy equivalent of the Guardians of
the Galaxy?
The first few moments of the first episode sets the mood
perfectly: a collection of more traditional heroes stands ready to face a great
evil…only to get mowed down violently in seconds, swearing up a storm as they
get picked off.
Yeah this isn’t your kid
friendly fantasy romp.
It’s a show made
by fans but meant for an adult audience and the introduction of our titular
troop makes that very clear.
Theyre
rude, brash, violent and some are incredibly horny.
For them, it’s all about having a blast
drinking the night away, bedding anyone they deem worthy or just getting into a
drunken brawl for the heck of it.
What’s
more surprising is that the two part opener isn’t an origin tale.
We meet Vox Machina well since its initial
assembly and it isn’t made clear how they all came to meet up in the first
place.
That is a story I’d love to see
because this bickering band often times seems to hate each other as much as
they do have each others backs.
What
made them all decide to stick together?
While the violence, gore and nudity are as abundant as
the many F bombs dropped every few scenes, Vox Machina’s fantastical world
feels as fresh as any that have come before it and the teams first mission
feels like something you’d experience watching an actual Dungeons and Dragons
Campaign being played out. The cities and landscapes are goergeous and
intimidating and seeing everyone unleash their attacks with varying results
feels like the end result of the roll of a D20.
In a way, this is more what a Dungeons and Dragons project should feel
like as opposed to the couple of live action attempts we’ve gotten in the past
that have failed so hard.
Oh and
Dragons?
Yep there’s plenty here and the
Blue Dragon the crew faces is scary as hell.
If there are others just as frightening as this one in the world of Vox
Machina, there’s gonna be a lot more dismemberments to come.
I’ll admit, I’d been holding off on giving The Legend of
Vox Machina a shot because I feel like such an outsider when it comes to Table
Top RPGs like the one inspiring this epic.
I do, however, feel most welcome in the world and very entertained too
thanks to a mix of snarky but loveable leads and a surprisingly nice mix of
comedy, violence, drama and cool world building.
So yeah, I think I’ll keep on going with this
one and maybe even decide to check out some of the Critical Role vids as
well.
This does feel like a quest worth
embarking on…how Vox Machina will survive it all, that’s all part of the fun
too I guess.
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