AND NOTHING BAD HAPPENED EVER AGAIN : The Legend of Vox Machina s02ep5+6 BLIND Reaction

[@feloniousmonk4815]

Liam (Vax's voice actor) told the writers, "Vox Machina never really had a leader. We all had different times when we stepped up to make important decisions. But also, it's Vex."

[@FrostyTheSnowPickle]

That being said…campaign 1 episode…86, I think? “Who’s your leader?” Vex: “Our leader isn’t with us right now.”

[@michaelbryant3640]

If it helps the anxiety about the series being cancelled, not only is Season 3 premiering in less than 2 weeks, but they're already working on Season 4 and a sequel/spin-off series adapting their second campaign!

[@landoflitsch]

Not to mention they are their Twitch cash cow. Which probably doesn't mean too much, but I'm guessing it gets you a second look before you just get shut down like other shows. Also Prime has the whole first look at anything they want to make.

[@georgerobins4110]

I will have you know this comment gave me a heart attack

[@rizeagle33]

Pretty sure there is at least one movie that has been green lit.

[@richardhealy]

​@@rizeagle33 Hopefully: Calamity

[@rizeagle33]

@@richardhealy that would be my guess.

[@lipsum42]

The party split which occurs here following the encounter with the second sphinx didn't occur in the streaming game. The script writers had to compress and rearrange stuff. So when this episode aired, we had to wait a week to find out what happened to Pike. We refer to the two sub-parties as Team Double Date and Team Biggie Smalls.

[@easterslice]

That's the first I heard of the teams. I like it!

[@Domodamo]

It's funny you mention that the broom needs to be modified so Vex doesn't fall off. During the live stream campaign, Percy spends some downtime doing just that and making a harness setup to help in preventing her from falling off as easily. Also, it's really endearing to see someone go through a lot of the emotions a lot us went through and to have someone reacting to it emotionally and openly. Thank you for sharing your experience with us 😊

[@mollymawkery]

Kima and Allura are my second favorite ship from campaign 1, so I was very happy to get that moment of confirmation that they were together in the show too. The streamed campaign actually starts with Vox Machina being sent on a mission by Allura to find a missing Kima.

[@Logan_Baron]

Speaking of Vex taking control of situations and they often look to Vex, one of my favorite Q&As on the game, the players were asked who the leader of the group is. They answered "We don't have a leader.......... But it's Vex".

[@fahrenheitmusic5688]

The back half of season 2 is SO good, it's worth the stress of the first half, I promise.

[@loot5532]

Lmao that's also such an understatement

[@easterslice]

It's fun that you're so worried about Vex falling off her broom because in the campaign, Percy was also very worried about that. He spent a lot of time and effort to design a seat so that she would be more secure while flying. He also created a tether, so that if she did fall off, she'd be able to retrieve the broom. (The mechanical reasons for all this was because the DM gave her disadvantage on attacks while she was flying, since she'd have trouble balancing. It took Taliesin a few weeks of rolling tinkering checks to make the seat, but after that, she was able to fly and shoot arrows without disadvantage.)

[@hhylobates4098]

Such a shame we missed out on her practising at the dinner table, shooting whole chickens as they were tossed into the air.

[@dresdenfan88]

Fun Fact : Janet Varney, the VA who played Keyleths mom, was also Korra in Avatar: the Legend of Korra. Marisha Ray (Keyleth) has also said that Keyleths Aramente and backstory were also very inspired by Avatar the last Airbender

[@shannonsavino4068]

37:03 one of us, one of us, one of us, one of us (shipping Percy/Vex). Keyleth's face was all of us in that moment. I love your insistence that Vex get a seat and a tether on the broom to keep her safe. This is absolutely one of those small things that was cut for time, but in the campaigns when Vex got her broom Percy spent a good chunk of time working on adding a tether and a seat to make it safer to fly on in combat. "This pains me, and it* must be put down" is a favorite underrated Percy quote. (*the engineering problem of adding a seat to a flying broom) I love the "you're doing amazing sweetie" reaction to everything Keyleth is doing. She IS doing so much amazing stuff this pair of episodes! I love her boost in confidence.

[@kyratries]

thank you Percy for having your broom priorities straight 😊 his one-liners are absolutely the best, from the show to everything people have told me about the campaign!

[@cabezadecerveza7635]

I kind of feel like that's one of those things that is still going to happen. Persis way of flirting is to make things for vex.

[@Stefan-xt5sk]

Thanks for putting yourself through the stress of this season, I really appreciate and enjoy your reactions. Also I can't wait for season 3! Season 1 took a while to find itself with the humour and was very focused on Percy, but season 2 just balances everything so nicely. It's a rollercoaster of emotions that gives every character time to shine.

[@firecat4529]

7:04 In the campaign she has been airborne in the Briarwood arc already btw. 22:34 I think she is a fire elemental now

[@hhylobates4098]

They had the flying carpet in the beginning, and Vex sorely missed it. Then in the Briarwood battle she used a potion of flying, and her dramatic near death was ultimately caused by her falling smack to the ground. Both cases a bit different to trying to manuever and shoot from a very narrow, and uncomfortable seat

[@AdamEspersona]

Grog just casually throwing away Craven Edge? It's not that simple. It's cursed. And also... well... It's basically an allegory for addiction.

[@lipsum42]

IIRC, cursed items in D&D usually include sub-clauses to the effect that the character carrying the item WANTS to keep it and CAN'T tell anyone there's a problem.

[@AdamEspersona]

@@lipsum42 Some of them do, yeah.

[@andresfelipemanjarres7061]

yeah, more specifically in this case a steroid adiccition, specially in Grog arc this season where he belives that his strength comes from be more powerfull and that what the sword is giving him, yes you can say that a lot of it is because the inherent hability of the curse sword to tent him, but is also the idea that Grog want this power, he didnt se anything bad in using a "evil" item so that he gets the benefits, the diferents come now that the person he loves most in the world is hurt (and possibly kill) by his own bloodlust. i just dont want to take away the complet fault of Grog actions, he was manipulated, but part of him wanted to be used.

[@CatherinesClaws]

I love your analysis of Vex. She's absolutely a warrior of the mind type, just like Percy. It's why they get along so well.

[@erictighe1683]

I think you've learned they are master story tellers as you said, but I think that you have also learned Matt is the master of cliffhangers.

[@Caiothewwe4]

I love Keyleth's face on that scene. She's just like: "my friends are having a crush on each other 😊"

[@Miner49er201]

I feel like Allura and Kima feel guilt about Thordak’s escape because if they were strong enough to slay him back then - rather than just sealing him - he wouldn’t have contributed to the destruction of Emon.

[@TarisSinclair]

Thank you for your genuine reactions ... I should say rather, I enjoy seeing you experience the show and their stories. It brings me back to years ago when I watched their D&D campaign.

[@cabezadecerveza7635]

Absolute same.

[@caffeinedelusions]

'Half Giant' is the serial-numbers-filed-off version of a D&D species called 'Goliaths', who are among the smaller breeds of genuine giants. That's what Grog is. They're just calling them Half Giants because they don't want to have problems with Hasbro for using stuff that's brand identity to D&D proper.

[@zedbee2736]

I'm really enjoying seeing someone come into this with minimal knowledge of the campaign, so they can't see the story coming all the time. However you are usually quite perceptive on that front, so good job!

[@ryanbagley3293]

Oh man that lip quiver on pike getting hit by the sword. I don’t know how well she will handle events in mighty nien

[@cabezadecerveza7635]

Okay my quick silly breakdown of season 1. In the original campaign, the stuff with brimsythe happened before they even started streaming, so in a way it was a treat to the longtime fans and a quick introduction to the characters for the new people. Then a whole bunch of things happened long before they go to Whitestone. The Percy briarwood arc was chosen because it was highly popular and very much encapsulated. But remember the brimsyhte part was also a seed that was planted for the coming of the chroma conclave. Matt Mercer plants many seeds and none of them are forgotten. They all seem to come to fruition even if sometimes it takes 3 years or five 4 seven.

[@davidweileder3393]

I am sooo enjoying watching your journey through this, and also like your thoughts on the episode and journey. Keep it up! P.S. - Love the "Let me be annoying" sign in the background. Literally laughed out loud when I saw that!

[@easterslice]

Me, too! I love that sign. It always give me a smile.

[@Graelcase]

Craven Edge getting exasperated with Grog during their chat was great. He made the evil sword *sigh*.

[@EvanED]

"Do you have a female setting?"

[@jjsidekick]

"The fire elves", I understand the confusion, even though we clearly saw Cerkonos wasn't an elf, but it's Ashari, not elves. Keyleth isn't even a full elf herself, she's a half-elf, although unlike Vex and Vax who has one human and one elven parent, both Keyleth's parents are also half-elves themselves. Ashari are more tribe based rather than race based. They're mainly druids, though not all of them are, who protect the elemental planes and make sure they don't mix with the material plane, hence the air Ashari, fire Ashari and the following earth and water Ashari. And yes, Marisha, who created and voices Keyleth, has indeed confirmed Keyleth is very much based on her love for Avatar The Last Airbender.

[@irocky7772]

"No death today, no death!" Well, about that...

[@jennynorton9218]

Enjoying all your reactions. Love Vox Machina and I can't wait until you get back to EPIC too!

[@AdamEspersona]

By the way, young Kiki in 2x5 was voiced by Sam Riegel’s daughter Kestrel. She also voiced one of the children in 1x1 and… Pike’s “stand-in” in 1x5. And while we’re at it, here’s some more trivia: Marisha Ray named Keyleth by putting air-related words into an online Elvish translator, and then simplified the spelling. Keyleth is similar to gwilith, which translates as "air (as a region)" in Sindarin. Similarly, Vilya (Keyleth’s mother) translates as "air, sky" in Quenya. Vilya is also the name of one of the three elven Rings of Power in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium. It is also known, appropriately, as the Blue Ring, Ring of Air, and Ring of Firmament. And of course, the home of the Air Ashari is named _Zephrah._ As in “zephyr”. Just as the Fire Ashari home is named Pyrah. Plenty of elemental naming conventions.

[@nicholasfondacaro7169]

Important context for the series: The first season was crowd funded. The first 2 episodes were the original crowdfunding goal (which is why it seems a bit disjointed from the rest of the season) with the Briarwood arch (the fan favorite arch from campaign 1 of Critical Role) being the stretch goals. Since they were picked up for more seasons, they are able to get more into the characters than in season 1.

[@cabezadecerveza7635]

Yes crowdfunded where they were hoping that maybe they could raise about $500,000 I think, and overnight they got 3 million dollars. I think the end total of the crowd funding was 11 million.

[@nicholasfondacaro7169]

@@cabezadecerveza7635 Yup, I gave to it!

[@cabezadecerveza7635]

@@nicholasfondacaro7169 dude that is awesome. It's a great series and they have a million miles of content.

[@lucasxfiuza]

Taliesin Jaffe (Percy's player) once said that Vox Machina doesn't really have a leader, unless Vex is within earshot. Then it's Vex.

[@EslocoSoldado]

I just wanna mention critical Role and The Legend of Vox Machina NEVER had to worry about getting picked up for a season two considering the fans crowdfunded the complete first season in under twenty four hours and to this day it is still one of the highest grossing GoFundMe campaigns.

[@magp1001]

It's not a crow...it's a raven! Yes, there is an Earth Plane and a Wind Plane and a Water Plane. You can get really into D&D lore and find out about the quasi-elemental planes of smoke, ash, ooze, etc.... I'm pretty sure tribes of Ashari guard portals to the elemental planes. Grog is a half-giant, as is most of his old tribe -- humanoid, but distantly related to actual giants; they're called Goliaths in D&D, but copyright. Vex is a badass -- she don't need no tether! There were some hilarious moments from the campaign where she practiced with the broom.

[@Ironoclasty]

They had already had a number of full blown adventures before Whitestone, and a few between that and the Chroma Conclave. Their exploits with Krieg happened before they started streaming the game, so they had already been at it a while before the action we've already seen. Logistical and legal complications have made most of their other exploits difficult to translate. But it's all still available, if you've got 400+ hours to sit back and watch.

[@Bigsteelguy4]

Episode 6 is one of my favorite episodes out of the series. I loved 4, 6, 10, 11 and the finale. That battle was very intense with the Sphinx vs The Dragon. We warned you this will get emotional, this will get more wild in season 2, but even the later episodes are fantastic. I'm just so damn hyped for Season 3 coming in October.

[@KaitheKnightly]

Funfact: Dragons arent extinct in this world. They just tend to keep to themselves.

[@johnobrien7562]

Vax made a deal without understanding the consequences - he was literally offering his life for his sister's, and didn't think the Matron would turn that into a lifetime of servitude. Keyleth is being thrust into the role that should have been her mother's - Vilya was meant to complete her Aramente and lead the Ashari. It's no wonder that Kiki has such confidence issues and has been avoiding her Aramente. Again, the voices are just top notch. Even the girl that Keyleth saves from the fire plan dragon is voice by Aimee Carrero- She-Ra herself. Kamaljiori lived in the campaign - the challenge instead was to guess his name. There was a timed trial to get to him, which is where they got the "staring at the hourglass" from the power ballad. Pike still got impaled on Craven Edge, though.

[@djcowell91]

Given the your talk about what parts of the campaign became season one and the connection to the network, have you heard the production story for this? If you have, just skip this, but... As the entire cast is voice actors, they had the idea of making a special and animating ONE episode of television to animate their characters. They did a Kickstarter asking for $750,000 to make it and show some pre-campaign background. That Kickstarter got $5-6 MILLION in the first few days, and ended up with something like $13 milliion (don't come after me internet if my values are a little off...) So they were racing to come up with stretch goals and decide what else to animate. When it got that big, they took the idea to several networks to leverage those funds into a committment for a series. Amazon was the only one that assured them the creative control they wanted, and they got the agreement for 12 episodes. With that kind of committment they could still do their prequel (Brimscythe) and the first SERIOUS arc from the campaign that take place after the cast was settled. (Drama with another cast member right before that arc...) So that's why they couldn't really go any sooner AND it was fortunately a great starting place. FURTHER real world news if you don't know. When season one went well, Amazon not only agreed to seasons two and three, but they gave the Critical Role team a first look development deal for other properties. They've already announced and have shown animatics for The Mighty Nein, their second campaign that was built from the ground up with the knowledge they'd be streaming. But the animatics already even show prequels to that! So even fans of the campaigns are learning backstory that was only talked about or played in un-aired session zeroes of the game. With that ongoing relationship, most people expect an announcement of a season 4 for Vox Machina given the arcs that are left and the pace they've been showing them. (maybe a fifth? Depends on the speed I guess?) But unless something changes drastically for the negative, there should be a lot more of this emotional damage coming our way. 🙂

[@KestralWolfe]

I would honestly recommend you to watch the 'passed through fire' of the campaign. Just look up 'Kaer Keyleth pass through fire', and it'll come up. It should be the top result. This version was gorgeous, and heart-felt, but so is the scene from the campaign. Made a bunch of us cry, haha. Having watched your reactions to the show, I think you'll absolutely love it.

[@EslocoSoldado]

Grog is technically a Goliath but D&D and Wizards of a coast are real A Holes and owns the copyright on a lot of fantasy creatures.

[@DarcOne13]

Trust me: the rest of the season does not disappoint. They go hard the whole way through.

[@caffeinedelusions]

Y’know, I do have to wonder who’s going to tell Osyssa how her fella died, and that it was defending Scanlan “nobody cares about you, I’m no different” Shorthalt.

[@thiagohayashi9936]

All Vox Machina are getting upgrades e level ups! They surelly would deal with the challenges of this season easily... am I right? (nervous laugh)

[@cabezadecerveza7635]

Who knows perhaps while they're in the process of gathering the vestiges they are also creating an army????

[@LordMaize]

Love the title lol

[@richardhealy]

The Matron of Ravens is the Goddess of Death and Fate foretold. Death is inevitable, but fates can change. And Vax said "Take me instead". And she did.

[@cabezadecerveza7635]

Okay as a driver who has had to deliver alcohol I realize this is non D&D related but you cannot deliver it onto a doorstep because someone over the age of 21 has to accept it.

[@Lngbrdninjamasta]

Grog is from a race of half stone giants called goliaths.

[@zenmastermtl]

Scanlan casts Arena Rock Ballad. It's super effective. *Holds up lighter*

[@FrostyTheSnowPickle]

In the original campaign, the “Pass through fire” line came from a different source. There was a guest player (Patrick Rothfuss) who played a character named Kerrek. He helped them battle against some of the dragons, and later sent Keyleth a letter telling her how things were going after the dragons. In that letter, he included this: “Did you know that there are some seeds that cannot sprout unless they are first burned? A friend once told me that. She was...she was a bookish sort. I think of gardening constantly these days. I wear your gift, and I think of you. And I think it is interesting that there are some living things that need to pass through fire before they flourish.” Alongside the letter, he also sent her a ring he had forged, which was engraved with the words “I have passed through fire.”

[@connorblack99]

Your constant reactions to Anna Ripley give me life. God she’s awful

[@lipsum42]

It looked like you liked Scanlan's outhouse song (the melody is legit, as is Sam Riegel's voice), so if you missed it you may want to go back and listen to the end credits of Pass Through Fire.

[@joshritz7067]

The thing isnthat you can make any character a main character. Like William Shakespeare said: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. With this in mind you can find a way take any character to the forefront

[@timidwolf]

The Briarwood arc was in the original campaign broadcast, the Brimscythe part was also run by the players but before they started streaming (Percy wasn't even Taliesin's first character in their game).

[@InkyPetrel]

Imagine being an evil intelligent sentient sword, formerly owned by a ruthless, terrifyingly competent vampire lord, who you barely even need to ask for blood. They get the worst sunburn, and the next person who grabs you is... Grog. Big hearted, KIND Grog, who enjoys combat, sure, but contains all the malice of a small turnip when he's not fighting. I could almost feel sorry for Craven Edge. Almost. 🤣 "The gorgons have been itching for a battle" every time I hear this I just imagine 70 death gorgons who have started a nice little little crochet circle and book club while they wait in Kam's basement. I'm so glad you decided to pick this series back up, your reactions have quickly become some of my favourites. :)

[@TimpanistMoth_AyKayEll]

"all the malice of a small turnip" is a wonderful turn of phrase!

[@InkyPetrel]

@@TimpanistMoth_AyKayEll Hehe thanks.

[@ciscoralmazora289]

Some thoughts on the MythCarver Sword. First, it's not just a weapon. The name "MythCarver" suggests insight into the Vestiges, cutting them up into manageable parts or ideas. Secondly, in Tarot Card terms, the Sword represents Intellect, the Power to cut any problem down to size, to see into its heart. That's why the Sword is a favorite symbol of kings and leaders. 😉

[@bryanmacklem2654]

Fun fact, they said Myth carver at one point belonged to the White Duke (David Bowie).

[@slavicandroid1999]

dnd has various planes of existance, among them are the four main elemental planes (earth, water, air and fire) as well as demiplanes where those four meet and the two plains of life (feywild) and death (shadowfell). The elemental planes are where most elementals come from and even have various civilizations in them, though their climates are less than hospitable to most humanoids. The inner planes are also where dragons draw their power from

[@warriorwitchwillow]

To answer your question about the planes: Yes, there are four elemental planes. Each one is connected to Exandria through a rift. Each Ashari tribe lives where these rifts seep through to keep Exandria safe. And yes, if Keyleth completes her Aramente, she will be able to turn herself into elemental beings of all four elements.

[@christophercobler9774]

Ide say still do an analysis video, yes you will get corrected in comments. We will mostly be filling in the blank spots and better explain things that they couldn't fit into a show. Campaign 1 was 120 episodes each about 4 hours long. Thats a lot to condense into a show

[@cabezadecerveza7635]

Sorry for filling up your content section with my nonsense, but lastly, while the characters able to bypass death so far, within the three campaigns ( this is all campaign one) there have been three true deaths, where a player character was dead and stay dead. Even with powers of Resurrection there is always the chance that it will fail.

[@cabezadecerveza7635]

Also as far as Percy keeping an eye on grog I don't think that's going to happen. In the original series, Grog did not find the sword, Percy did. And while gunslinger is a fighter class, and Percy could wield a sword, it was a great sword and it was too large for him. But he did talk 2 craven edge. But grogs character kept asking for the sword, and I think as more of a player decision than a character decision Percy gave it to him because he thought it would be interesting to see what happened.

[@cabezadecerveza7635]

Okay one more fun tidbit. All the ladies love Percy. After the original campaign was over, the players were answering questions, and at some point all of the players who played the female characters said that at least at some point their characters had a huge crush on Percy. Now I have watched like probably 40 different reaction channels to the show I love it that much. And I have to say the everyone loves Percy thing is playing out in real life. I have yet to see a reaction channel where someone didn't say wow Percy is dark but damn that's hot. No I'm not saying anything happens I'm not saying anything doesn't. ❤

[@kenle2]

It's the "broken bird" thing. Byronic, brilliant, emotionally (and LITERALLY) tortured kid who grew up with an actual demon whispering in his ear while trying to control his capacity for violence - which he is pretty DAMN good at. Plus, well-bred royalty brought low and humbled. "Oh, I could be the one to HEAL the prince and live happily ever after!"

[@TimpanistMoth_AyKayEll]

There is a fantastic compilation video (NOTE: with SPOILERS for all of C1! Not for Kyra or other first-timers!) called "Taliesin & Co. affectionately shit-talking Percival for over 6 minutes" which gets into this.

[@cabezadecerveza7635]

@@TimpanistMoth_AyKayEll I will definitely check that out. I'm two episodes away from being caught up on season 3 so I think it's safe for me to watch.

[@cabezadecerveza7635]

@@TimpanistMoth_AyKayEll okay I just watched it and yeah it's all pretty much stuff I'm familiar with. But damn, wow did that make me miss talks machina.

[@velinion1]

The wonderful / terrible thing about a show based on a live play is you can't trust narrative causality. People live and die based on a die roll, so "they would never kill so-and-so because..." Doesn't apply. Sometimes, the bad guy rolls a crit, and that's that. That's how Percy's childhood friend they rescued in season1 died a couple episodes later.

[@hhylobates4098]

No crit or any other roll for that one though: Archie was only killed off in the show, for the narrative reason of forcing Percy to take charge of the rebels.

[@swordbrotherplatt9392]

28:07 sorry, not sorry… who let the dragon out, who, who, who. Who let the dragon out, who, who, who?… with apologies to the Baha men!

[@queenidragon4489]

27:08 copper dragons would beg to differ