Legend of Vox Machina S2E10 "Kill Box" // Reaction & Review

[@havenomouth]

It is crazy how well adapted this show is. I have never seen a fan base as happy with an adaptation as they are with this.

[@captin3149]

It's a definite plus that the people that created this story in the first place have so much creative control over it, unlike many adaptations that are taken by a studio with little input from the original creators. Additionally, as fanbases go, CR have a decent one and I feel that the majority of the fans are aware that a one-for-one adaptation simply isn't viable. (HUUUUNDREDS of hours)

[@bandi138138]

After such terrible adaptations such as the Dresden Files, The Witcher, and Avatar The Last Air Bender, this has finally become the gold standard of how adaptations into a new medium should be.

[@theanyktos]

​@@bandi138138I'd like to add Percy Jackson to that list.

[@theanyktos]

Yeah. Adapting is _hard_ and they did such an amazing job.

[@belindaluna2067]

I'm waiting to see how it ends. So far I think they've done some things just about perfect and some things kind of eh, but sometimes the reason a show is remembered well is that it stuck the landing.

[@sherra-sama]

Watching Dustin struggle to contain the pure glee on his face to not give away moments is always endlessly entertaining.

[@markm1261]

I know right it’s like watching a goldfish swan dive off a jagged cliff not knowing what will happen, but Dustin knows. Haha

[@cryofpaine]

I like watching these reactions that have someone who knows campaign 1, and someone who doesn't. It's always fun watching the one who knows try to contain the reaction to avoid spoiling it for the other.

[@GameMasterToolbox]

They also had a travel montage, so we don't know how long that trip took.

[@testfire3000]

It probably took them quite some time "Making my way" as they are two little gnomes trying to tote a Goliath who couldn't travel under his own power. (I love the part when they used Grog as a raft, lol)

[@johnekare8376]

I think the "making my way"-montage of how they got to Pop-Pop's place ate up a lot of those three weeks as well.

[@FireBowProductions]

Yep, this right here.

[@crystalfire5564]

That’s what I thought too

[@RegalNika]

I believe they said they actually went over budget on this episode because they insisted on having the "at dawn we plan" scene. Absolutely wild and I honestly cannot thank them more for having their priorities in the right place haha. Really speaks to the level of creative control they have with this.

[@iceman10129]

"The Kill Box" was the campaign episode name. So seeing this name pop up on IMDB months back had me inpantiently waiting for this one, and it delivered!

[@Aetheria60]

You've probably already been reminded, but in the campaign, the Kaylie stuff actually happened in Emon just before Chroma Fall (episode 38 was the reveal and episode 39 was Chroma Fall).

[@kamikyo]

yeah, then there was some reconciliation between the two while in Westrun. More realistic to have a lengthier time between meetings for reflection and character growth, but makes sense to condense the two scenes in a 12-episode series.

[@markamanic]

When the party got split and one half spent 3 weeks in the fey realm, Pike, Grog, and Scanlan were dropped in the middle of nowhere and had to travel all the way to Wilhand near Westruun. the travel montage was probably most of those 3 weeks.

[@andresfelipemanjarres7061]

the time diference was the "making my way" song montage, from where they were to Pike´s granpa it took a couple of weeks and later Grog needing to recuperate is the rest of the time

[@corystanish]

As far as the timeline goes, don't forget the musical montage of them dragging Grog across who knows how many miles of wilderness. That has to have eaten up a good chunk of the 3 weeks the rest were in the Fey Realm

[@freenerdman7736]

Dustin's smile when he remembered what Vex was about to do XD And definitely one of the best Nat 20s of the campaign (not forgetting the insanity that was the post-campaign live show) And I love that they included the whole "At Dawn We Plan" shenanigans XD Thanks for another great reaction guys. Enjoy the last 2 episodes- really ends the season on a strong note.

[@dehro]

about grog changing his fighting style and using a lot more dodges... barbarians have an armor class that is made of constitution and dexterity bonuses combined. so part of his fighting style always was dexterity based when it came to absorbing or evading hits... except now that he was weakened, he leaned a little more into the dodging than in the taking stuff to the face.. or tried to, lol

[@jamesmorehouse9896]

I love seeing the side eye in the thumbnail. It’s a happy fan going “watch this!”

[@ccloudleaf]

Seeing both of you happy means so much to me as a critter fan. And I'm a M9 recruit so I can't wait for that... What a good episode, what a good reaction!

[@zippomage]

FOR STROOOOOOOOOOONGJAAAAAAAAAAW!!!!!! this is the single best episode of the series. Just.....so strong, so powerful in so many ways.

[@CrownofMischief]

Love the campaign intercuts with the Kevdak kill. Such a great moment

[@brandonvangieson8087]

Critical Role has featured many epic combats over its many years, but for me the Kevdak fight has always sat as my number one. I was floored by how incredible this adaptation was, definitely the highlight of the series so far.

[@ChaoticTabris]

On Tabletop Dr. Dranzel was sort of Scanlan's mentor or at least the guy that discovered him and made him famous. He travelled with his troupe to help support his single mother. Scanlan's background is inspired by Eminem's and Dr. Dranzel is his Dr. Dre.

[@PaulGuy]

Scanlan actually met Kaylie after the Briarwood arc, before the attack on Emon. The good Doctor and crew liberated Grayskull Keep of its expensive utensils when they left. They did meet again in Westruun in basically the scenario in the episode, but he already knew who she was. It's a good example of how they condensed things for the show without losing what's important.

[@galmorzu]

3 weeks with Scanlan, Pike and Grog were mostly spent Making Their Way (tm) to Pike's great uncle's place.

[@tycol322]

"Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savoir.... MYAXEINYOURFACE!"

[@theanyktos]

Kaylie actually showed up even earlier, just before the attack on Emon, but it makes a lot of sense to put it here.

[@troikas3353]

The only nitpick I had about Kaylees adaptation is I felt like in the original campaign Matt, whether he did it consciously or not, was even more clear that Kaylee wasnt flirting with Scanlan- it was all just Sam playing into his own Pepe Le Pee meets Casonova schtick and Matt played Kaylee as just letting Scanlan hang himself with his own creepy behavior. The show made her a little bit more of an active participant at the end there.

[@LinaScott]

He suffered an Aerial Grogging 🤣 Ok from a viewer POV that had everything most of us want, visuals, music, goo and Grog 😍

[@Liesmith424]

Really appreciate the intercuts of scenes from the actual campaign; it can't always be easy to track those down among such long sessions, but it's great to see those comparisons for big moments.

[@belindaluna2067]

There isn't anything I can say about this episode that hasn't been said....but I do want to point out that this show has dubs in multiple languages. (Central American Spanish, European Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Japanese, etc.) So multiple dubs had to write and perform new versions of Scanlan's metal song....and new versions of When The Bald Man Cries. So....yeah. Some of the non-english dubbers were pretty into it, too.

[@n4l9bx]

I hadn't considered the songs and the translating work. Omg. That's so funny to think about XD

[@jansmith1226]

The whole Kevdak fight was epic. It was so cool to see all of them fight and it was really cool when Vex released Grog from the trinket and he killed Kevdak. It was also really funny though to just see Scanlan flying in the sky shooting lightning at everyone while his hand was just making the rock sign. I was also really shocked at the end to find out that he has a daughter.

[@tlaragihai5953]

15:03 and 15:33 Dustin takes *so much* advantage in the fact that Wendy is leaning forward and can`t see his Knowing Smile :DDDD I initially didn`t like the scene with Kaylie, it felt too much and unpleasant, but now it`s my favourite scene in the episode. Scanlan`s stupidity? Hilarious. And Kaylie plays along, while having _completely different_ intentions, I love it! It`s almost like the viewers are also trapped in the "wait is this a date?" thought, but the moment they come to the room, you`re like "Oh. Oh. This is _bad_ " :DDD Thank you for including small clips from the campaign, it looks really cool, and it`s cool to be able to compare the moments, even if they`re short. "Did no one insight check her in the game?!" - reminds me of a campain where we met and freed a captured celestial, and my sorcerer became a huuuuuge fan of them, always helped, tended their wounds etc. We told them we`re seeking their god (who was on the material plane, sleeping). We found the god, and the celestial immediately stabs him, drinks divine blood, becomes powerful as the thousands suns and thanks us on how we literally led them to their goal - to become a god themself. No one ever, *ever* , questioned them for all this time, zero insight checks were made.

[@laurahart1337]

So, the live Campaign episode where they fight and kill Kevdak is called "The Killbox" which is why when I saw the episode title on the list from IMDB I was like 👀👀👀 I know what we're doing there

[@cryofpaine]

The Kaylee stuff happened right before the dragon attack in the campaign. Dr. Dranzel and his troop were at Greyskull Keep at the time. I don't remember if they had left before the dragons showed up or not. But then they appeared again at Westrunn, so they combined the two.

[@TheDonmayo]

Barbarians are the best x3! Yesterday my D&D group and me just killed the big bad evil guy and my character Stomp Stonefist, Half-Orc Barbarian, stayed alive for FAR LONGER then he should have, because of Relentless Endurance proccing the 1st time Stomp got brought to 0. Then because Relentless Rage, kept me up for 3 more times reaching 0. (DC 10 /15/20) The bbeg was soo pissed off he cast Disintegrate twice in 1 round (first got dispelled) to finally get rid of Stomp. (Stomp was brought back by the power of the gods after the bbeg was killed!) Next week were doing a wrap-up session and say goodbye to this campaign and the characters we played over 3 and a half years!

[@testfire3000]

Wow that is amazing! Sounds like a lot of fun. Starting a new campaign after that?

[@TheDonmayo]

@@testfire3000 It was amazing! I am very lucky with both my GMs and fellow players! Also yes we will be starting a new campaign the week after the wrap-up. Gonna be a full melee group of idiots! Gonna look forward to it xd.

[@TomiSomolu]

Episode was soooooo epic wasn't it guys!?! That Vox Machina top you're wearing! 😍😍😍 Where??! How?! I demand to know!!! (#want one!) Love you guys - I don't always comment but I'm here 😁

[@testfire3000]

I am sure you can buy a Vox Machina shirt or other gear from the Critrole store online. I am betting Amazon gave them this for free as streamers. I know The Last of Us HBO gave out merch packages to famous YT streamers that were going to cover their show. EDIT: yep, you can see on her shirt sleeve it says "Prime Video" so this is definitely part of a merch package.

[@hunter559]

Musical "Making My Way" montage was meant to show a passage of time. They walked across the continent part way carrying a weak Grog.

[@testfire3000]

Yep, two Gnomes carrying a Goliath is pretty slow going, even if you occasionally used said Goliath as a raft.

[@darklorddysart]

So if I remember correctly in stream, this intro of Kaylie happens much earlier but she and the band are involved in the Westrunn moments, different but still very fun and cool.

[@SgtPriad]

Spoiler It isnt that much earlier to be exact. In the OG live campaign Kaylie gets introduced in Emon right before the dragon attack. Everything else is essentially the same

[@darklorddysart]

You just can’t do VM justice in 4 seasons, AT LEAST 5!

[@theanyktos]

Sam said somewhere they're aiming for 5. Spoilers So I'm expecting season 3 to end with either the Thordak or Raishan fight, season 4 to cover Tary's adventures and various side quests and season 5 to be about Vecna.

[@darklorddysart]

@@theanyktos Oh thank god for that. Hopefully we get the time jump too, I want to really see these guys lives and not just feel like we’ve spent a couple of mad months with them. Spoilers below I’m sooooo excited to see Tary and Doty! Originally I thought maybe they could end 3 on a cliffhanger with Raisan and then deal with her beginning of 4, but I saw someone have an amazing idea that you wrap all the Conclave up at the end of season 3, have the cliffhanger with Scanlan but the last shot is VM walking through the streets of Ank’Harel and we just hear “hmmm interesting looking bunch. Doty, take this down!” Oh it would be fantastic

[@BeatchBall]

Glad to finally see your faces during that epic battle. It was about the same reaction I gave the first time.

[@theanyktos]

Aw hell yes, this episode was so hype!

[@bcn1gh7h4wk]

4:00 the group was near the Frostweald, at Kamaljiori's lair, when Umbrasyl attacked and the teleporting failed. assuming that Grog, Pike and Scanlan just plopped out of the beam then and there, that would have put them several days away from Westruun, half way to Whitestone. in comparison, if Emon was Seattle WA, Westruun would be close to Calgary, Canada, half way to Edmonton. ....it's a trek, across country with a limping third wheel.

[@ticozayas6430]

the travel montage with the gnomes and groggy, i believe was supposed to simulate some of that 3 week time dilation/difference as well

[@emilydaniels3535]

I'm so glad you finally got this posted, and I look forward to the last two. I love this adaptation they did! Generally, I agree with the changes made for story reasons, although the swapping of some of the events in time can be a little confusing. In terms of the time jump, I think we're meant to understand that the trip to see Wilhand took some time, plus Grog's recovery

[@DaDunge]

4:00 They also had quite a Journey to get to her grandfather place.

[@superboyprime515]

Dustin's expressions were so funny to watch and this is probably my favorite episode of this season :)

[@AL-cc3mj]

My fav ep!! it has so many cool moments for each character and some killer music from scanllen!!!

[@ryanbrooks8045]

The Kaylie stuff actually happened a lot earlier. It happened in Emon then they met up again in Westrun

[@ginster458]

that moment in the first campaign was the first time I Marisha-crouched on my chair for two hours cause I didn't know what to do with my body because I was so hyped

[@theeLonelyRedPanda]

I'm a lil sad we didn't get an anime slowmo slice for Grogs killing blow, least for the shaving of his ear down to his chin leaving the bone exposed then have it speed up to real time.

[@guillaumebelangermethot9907]

In the campain they meet kaylie a bit earlier before arriving in westrun

[@spiritkit]

The time difference is the travel time to pop pops and the waiting there for a time.

[@manahakume9870]

technically that happens EARLIER, he first met her and the band in Emon before the Chroma conclave, but to time crunch things down they moved it to westruun for that b-story XD

[@momqabt]

Extra points for looking up the actuals from the live play vod

[@bartolomeestebanmurillo4459]

Critical Role really is a high fantasy story!

[@mikebreaddelancey4755]

Scanlan Shorthalt is based on Eminem (Slim Shady). He was discovered and joined Dr. Drezill(Dr. Dre). Matt gave him a daughter called Kaylie (Hailey). **********SPOILERS******** His alternate identity later in the campaign becomes Meat Man (M M).

[@EpicRandomness555]

In the campaign, the Kaylie thing actually happened before the dragons attacked

[@rfrancoi]

Great video you guys. I was never a fan of D&D, but this is pretty amazing.

[@markm1261]

Great episode I enjoy your reactions to Critical Role

[@michaelcorvin5891]

You know you're doing well when you swipe left on your android home screen to the Google articles page and this video Pops up there congrats 🎉👏🎉

[@sickonesnow]

I have a theory. I think the traveling that Pike scanlon and gorg did after he last his strength took that long to get

[@lydia272]

Actually, 🧐, Kaylee was reviled BEFORE the Chroma Conclave attacked. Like, she left Emon 2-3 days before the attack.

[@AdamEspersona]

Easily would be the number 1 entry of a “Top Ten Vox Machina Beast Mode Moments” list. And it probably won’t be topped going forward. The time dilation of the Fey Realm actually HELPED in terms of continuity. Go figure! Seriously, the Matron needs to stop being so CRYPTIC. She ruined an opportunity for Vax and Kiki to dance. But at least, we’re finally seeing it. Keyleth falling for him. And of course, THAT reveal at the end is just as memorable as it was in the campaign.

[@loislindsay]

It was so crazy how well adapted this show is awesome it looks i have never seen a fan base as happy with an adaptation as they are with this you are a awesome couple will you please react to super sentai girl henshin and roll call thats my request

[@mblackman1170]

Best episode by far!

[@thetankgarage]

spoilers I was thinking either we do s3 Vorugal, s4 Thordak, s5 Taryon, s6 Vecna (Think that's too many seasons personally, even as a superfan) s3 Vorugal, s4 Thordak and Taryon, s5 Vecna (what I think is most likely) s3 Vorugal and Thordak, s4 Taryon and Vecna (not likely) or we go insane and do s3 Vorugal, s4 Thordak, s5 Taryon, s6 AND s7 Vecna!

[@AlexanderTheTiny]

spoilers I don't think Vorugal will get his own season, he just wasn't that big of a deal in the campaign, they might actually get Thordak next season, then it's raishan and taryon the season after that (early death for raishan) and then the last season is vecna

[@seansilence2697]

​@@AlexanderTheTinyconcur

[@ashleywalla4087]

If I may make a suggestion for your insane timeline, s6 is fully the year off. We tune in every week waiting for something to go wrong and it never does outside of like interpersonal drama. Each week's worth of episodes is a group. First episode is everyone just saying goodbye and right before Vax and Kiki leave Vex tells him not to get married without her there. The second half of that episode and the next two are Pike and Grog looking for Scanlan and going to Vasselheim, I don't really remember what these two did. Second batch is Scanlan and Kaylie and all the Meat Man and Lionel stuff. Third batch is the Whitestone trio; first episode is getting Vex's keep up, second is that breakup we heard about but know nothing about, third is the wedding. The last batch opens with Vax getting shovel talked by Korrin just so Vax can laugh and remind the new watchers that four weeks and eight and a half episodes ago his sister told him not to go off and get married without her and she is super busy this coming year so its fine. The next two and a quarter episodes is Kiki learning how to lead her people, Vax learning about Zephra, probably training to be a guard, meeting Derrig and building the temple in the woods. Middle half of the finale is everyone in Dalen's Closet with the pranks and such. Fake out winding down for ending, you go wow this episode feels really short, BOOM Delilah Briarwood is back and she has just finished resurrecting Slyas and she has a plan to bring back The Whispered One. True ending for the episode.

[@elbruces]

Well, they said they'd be doing the Chroma Conclave over seasons 2-3, so your "not likely" option seems the most likely to me. Unless they squeeze in a season 4 that's mostly filler by comparison, then wrap it up in season 5.

[@theanyktos]

​@@ashleywalla4087I doubt that's gonna happen, but I for one would love to see that. They could catch up on a lot of small character moments they don't have the time for in the fast pace of the show. And it'd be funny to see non-campaign Critters sweat XD

[@BBerloat]

YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS

[@johnbowen2496]

Spoilers somewhat. This is about where she appeared because of what happens in the thordak fight.