Hindsight really is everything, and that’s never been truer than with the animated adaptations of Critical Role‘s mega-popular Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein. The former found its footing after the breakneck pace of its first two seasons, while the latter hit the ground running and gave us a truly incredible first season of fantasy.
The Legend of Vox Machina threw first-time viewers in ankle deep and hoped they’d care about the characters amid all the fart and poop jokes. By comparison, The Mighty Nein felt more mature and willing to take itself seriously. Showrunner Tasha Huo cut deeply but carefully from the 141-episode D&D campaign to ground viewers in the world of Marquet and its characters. By the time I’d finished watching both series, I felt confident saying you could skip straight to the far more enjoyable The Mighty Nein.
I was wrong. Worse, only after finishing The Legend of Vox Machina season 4 did I realize how wrong I was.
One of my biggest criticisms was how The Legend of Vox Machina assumed audiences would already care about Vox Machina because of the original campaign. Fans who watched Campaign 1: Vox Machina must have felt immediately enamored, but newer viewers were left wondering one big question: why should I care? The Mighty Nein answered this question in three episodes, versus The Legend of Vox Machina’s first two seasons. This contrast is easily explained by the adaptations’ very different beginnings: The Legend of Vox Machina began with a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, whereas The Mighty Nein drew on the lessons Critical Role learned in adapting that campaign into an animated series.
Fast-forward to Vox Machina’s latest fight against an all-powerful evil, the menacing Whispered One, and it’s clear that all the lessons Critical Role learned with The Mighty Nein stand out perfectly here. Without a doubt, season 4 of The Legend of Vox Machina is one of the most epic, well-thought-out seasons of fantasy television of the decade.
Usually, after a world-shattering victory against a big bad like the one Vox Machina experienced in putting down the all-dragon faction of the Chroma Conclave at the end of season 3, the heroes return triumphant and get their happy-ever-after. But that was never going to be in the cards for Vox Machina, not with another arc to address from the original campaign.
Instead of fame and happiness, Critical Role showcases its narrative prowess by depicting a group of increasingly disillusioned heroes in the aftermath of a world ravaged by dragonfire. The threat of the Chroma Conclave might be gone, but it’s certainly not forgotten. Towns are abandoned, new diseases related to smoke in people’s lungs from dragonfire are emerging, and there’s a general unease in Tal’Dorei as survivors work to rebuild and mourn what they’ve lost.
It isn’t just Tal’Dorei that’s suffering. After a year apart, the members of Vox Machina are very different from who they were back in season 1. The call of adventure (and a buttload of money) drew our heroes into this dangerous world, but by the time season 4 arrives, a handful of them have lost their taste for it. The result is a truly heartbreaking season from start to finish. For one thing, there are instances where past traumas rear their heads, such as the return of necromancer and fervent believer of The Whispered One, Delilah Briarwood. However, there are also examples of season-long arcs that finally reach their crescendo, like Ashley Johnson’s phenomenal performance during Pike’s crisis of faith in the season’s earth-shattering finale.
In taking its time and pulling on narrative threads from the previous seasons, The Legend of Vox Machina season 4 has proven that, when given the time and space it lacked in its previous two seasons, its founders can weave a legendary tale that gives Critters, new and old, something meaty to chew on.
The Legend of Vox Machina (S1-S4) and The Mighty Nein (S1) are both available to stream now on Prime Video.
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Final Score
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