The roots of the expansive fantasy stories we see today in Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones began as epic poems, told from person to person in oral tradition. In the era of TV and movies, that method has mostly fallen by the wayside, but it’s still thriving if you know where to look: Dungeons & Dragons campaigns.
Critical Role, the hugely popular DnD live stream helmed by prolific voice actor Matt Mercer, weaves together hundreds of hours of storytelling using only words. Like the oral epics before them, the adventures of Critical Role have inspired a TV of their own: The Legend of Vox Machina, which begins its third season on Amazon Prime Video today.
In Season 3, Vox Machina finally comes into its own, not only as a fitting adaptation of the original story, but as a gripping fantasy epic that deserves to sit alongside Rings of Power and House of the Dragon.
Vox Machina follows the eponymous adventuring party as they continue to fight Thordak, the head of the dragon collective The Chroma Conclave. Thordak is a big bad for the ages: practically unkillable, behind a massive conspiracy to take over the world, and voiced by a legend. The late, great Lance Reddick provides the dragon’s deep rumble of a voice in one of his final roles.
Meanwhile, the party has internal problems. Scanlan (Sam Riegel) is dealing with the distance between him and his daughter, Keyleth (Marisha Ray) becomes very aware her adventuring is keeping her from the duties she has within the Air Ashari tribe, Pike Trickfoot (Ashley Johnson) must cope with problems with her patron, and there’s a blossoming romance between Vex’ahlia (Laura Bailey) and Percy de Rolo (Taliesin Jaffe).
Like any good DnD campaign, the combat and character moments are well-balanced. Every quiet moment feels like a time when characters would be able to breathe and address what’s going on around them. It’s not just a series of fetch quests and episodic adventures. Everything feels motivated, which is a difficult feat for a TV Show based on a table-top game.
While Vox Machina Season 3 more or less covers one arc from Critical Role’s original live stream, it makes some key changes to the story. A certain order of events or a key character might change, but the stakes, emotions, and themes of the story remain. It’s just that a half-hour show has a different structure than a 4-hour game session, and Vox Machina has to reflect that.
One strength of this format is the sheer amount of guest stars that can be worked in. Beyond Reddick, Season 3 also boasts Stephanie Beatriz, Indira Varma, Troy Baker, and Gina Torres, among others. There’s a classic “let’s call in favors with the people we helped in previous seasons” moment, leading to an epic showdown that isn’t even the final fight. And much like in actual DnD, there’s no telling who will make it out alive — after all, it’s all up to the dice.
The Legend of Vox Machina has outgrown its original status as a companion piece to a bigger franchise. Now, it’s a franchise in its own right, and this season proves it’s not a fluke. With an adaptation of Critical Role’s second campaign, The Mighty Nein, in production, it’s clear the powers that be (aka, Amazon) recognize that too. Vox Machina may have started as an epic poem told around a table, but now it’s an entire world.
