The Legend of Vox Machina - 2x9 - Episode 9 Reaction - A Test of Pride

[@MACReact]

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[@HowManyTimes234]

It’s not Pike’s mom, it’s Pike. She calls her great-great-grandfather just her “grandfather” as a shorthand.

[@OptionZero]

Yeah, they did it a bit wonky, between the grandmas comment and the hair.

[@ChevaliersEmeraude]

Yeah, I've seen a lot of reactors get that confused, and they even mentioned said confusion in one of their stream! Probably the black hair, or not calling him "pop-pop". But yeah, that was indeed Pike that healed Grog way back then! That's how they met! :)

[@happyslapsgiving5421]

@@OptionZero I mean, her hair was black back then. There isn't much that they could do about it. And saying "thank you for saving my grandfather" is less of a mouthful and more emotionally powerful than saying "thank you for saving my great... great... great... great..." You'd think that Pike having *the same face and the same voice* would be enough. Lastly, by their logic it would have been Pike's grandma, anyway... and Grog would be super old.

[@plex101]

​@@happyslapsgiving5421pike had her turned white when she died during the home game

[@happyslapsgiving5421]

@@plex101 That's what I said. Her hair was black back when she met Grog.

[@ms-literary6320]

“Your armour isn’t exactly the quietest” is such a great line for them to sneak in there. In the campaign Pike wore plate armour that would clank and give her disadvantage on stealth roles. I loved that in the last episode Grog greets Wilhand by saying “Hi Pop-pop, I fucked up.” Being able to casually admit to mistakes like that is really hard for someone from an abusive family. One of the small ways they show that Grog grew and healed from being away from his family/herd. Can you imagine saying “hey Kevdak, I fucked up”? Yeah, no.

[@kyokonightstorm5844]

I was in an abusive household. Can 100% confirm I would never have confessed such a thing back then. Even admitting that I was having an asthma attack felt like a bad idea.

[@hhylobates4098]

The armor line is kind of silly though, since they made Pike be able to just summon her armor out of nothing she can sneak just fine.

[@ticozayas6430]

Racially Percy and Grog are the shortest lived races in the group, followed by the twins and keyleth, and then lastly the gnomes... (Classwise Keyleth being a druid gives her the possibility of extending her lifespan once she reaches a certain character level, when and if that happens she would be the longest lived of the group)

[@jtphr33ky]

That is baby Pike. She was actually chopped in half pre-stream, and her resurrection turned her hair white.

[@niamhfox9559]

I've only just noticed the snow falling when he's dying in the road looks just like the snow falling in the "where does your strength come from" fight. Especially as it's remembering that that makes him realise "it's not muscles that makes you strong, it's looking after the little ones".

[@matthewsteinmetz729]

For all the things that are so good about this show, there are a few things that got lost in the shuffle when adapting the campaign. Wilhand easily could've said Pike's name and avoided any confusion in that scene for new viewers of the story, but everyone was so heavily invested and steeped in the story when writing the show they overlooked it. Minor oversight, big confusion for the audience that aren't in the know.

[@donrichards271]

It's like no-one has any experience with a great grandparent. The ones I've known (a few greats scattered thru my family) were never referred to as "great grandpa", just grandfather or pop pop or some other shorter name than great whatever.

[@happyslapsgiving5421]

They assumed that Pike having Pike's face and Pike's voice would be enough.

[@user-jt1js5mr3f]

@@happyslapsgiving5421the different colored hair can easily throw people off though, since they don’t explain the change

[@crystalfire5564]

@@happyslapsgiving5421Shows often have family members look very alike. Same actor, different haircut or clothing style. So it is easy to be confused when you are new to this story.

[@CrownofMischief]

​@@crystalfire5564Yeah, I mean Taliesin played Percy's father in the show. Wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume Ashley could play Pike's mom

[@stevencavanagh7990]

Ir's Pike, if it had been her Mom she would have wanted 100 Gold for healing Grog

[@xboxman1710]

Ah yes the Trickfoot family, wonder if we are going to see the rest of them one day.

[@kjj26k]

​@@xboxman1710 I've heard they are planning to do 5 seasons for Vox Machina, which would have them show up in the next, 4th season if so. But, they are moving what would be a Season 4 arc into Season 3 so...

[@bandi138138]

That was indeed a younger Pike. Pike is in her early forties, and while we don't know Grog's exact age, we know that he's younger than Pike

[@HaydrogenBomb]

Pike's in her forties?

[@bandi138138]

@@HaydrogenBomb yup. She's the 2nd oldest member of VM. Gnomes age slowly, so she's still very young by gnome standards, though

[@astrea4020]

@@HaydrogenBombGnomes are only considered adults once they reach 40 so Pyke is basically like early 20’s. Their lifespans are 350-500 years.

[@HaydrogenBomb]

@@astrea4020 Dang. How old is Scanlan, then?

[@riolkin]

@@HaydrogenBomb Sam chose 69 as Scanlan's starting age for this campaign. I'm sure you can imagine why.

[@oougahersharr]

Rough ages, for those curious (not precise): Pike is in her 40s. Scanlon is over 100 (and is oldest of the group). Percy is in his mid-twenties (and is youngest of the group). Vax and Vex are about thirty. Keyleth is very young, but older than Percy. She is second youngest of the group, though. Grog's age is indetermined, but I believe he's supposed to be around five to ten years younger than Pike, based loosely on the back story that he was a teen and Pike showed early gifts with healing, and she's "like an older sister" to him.

[@timemonkey]

Pike and her great great grandfather are followers of the Everlight, a goddess of redemption. That's why Pike hadn't heard this story before, Wilhand knew the important thing wasn't that Grog used to do bad, but that he'd realized his error and wanted to do good. It was better for them all to move on rather than dwell on the past wrongs. Pike and Wilhand are also very different than the rest of their family.

[@I.Lostalim]

All the episodes are great - but the next one picking right up from here is a clear standout with a lot of big moments culminating. As others have said, that is little Pike, we have seen her refer to Wilhand as just grandpa before - it may become relevant in later seasons, but essentially it was just her and Wilhand kinda seperated from the rest of the family, and then Grog joined them to become 3. The flashback had Pike with her original hair colour, it apparently turned white during the home game before they started streaming. The orc who was a Scanlan fan is Dr Dranzle, in the stream version they are part of Scanlan's back story he travelled with them before going solo. Sam has said he loosely based him on Dr Dre to Scanlan Shortholt's Marshal Mathers.

[@shamanicmerf]

That was actually Pike. Her hair went all white when she was killed in an adventure before they started streaming.

[@AlmostOtaku7]

Spoilers, they may flashback to things in season 3

[@yiklongtay6029]

@@AlmostOtaku7 very little chance. No reason to

[@Ozgarthefighter]

​@@yiklongtay6029Tons of reason to. Pike hasn't gotten her vestige yet, and they will likely dive into her backstory when they do.

[@RomanyGypsy92]

Everyone else is telling you that it was actually Pike, so no need for me to repeat that, but gnomes actually can live anywhere from 350 to 500 years. It was a running joke in the campaign that Scanlan was the oldest but wouldn't reveal his age. I think he eventually did at the end. Goliaths like Grog, on the other hand, typically have a more human lifespan. Pike and Grog were probably of a similar age in the flashback, or maybe Pike considered a bit younger.

[@MusicUnderMyBreath]

Pikes in her late 30s early 40s. And according to the critical role wiki grog is "somewhere between 1-50" 😂

[@brianewing5778]

Fittingly, Sam said Scanlan's age was 69. 🤣

[@Bell_Arclide]

im sure you've already seen it but next episode is insane.

[@miafiolekova5817]

Just a few interesting tidbits of information about Grogs backstory. It was established that when that incident with his uncle happened he was in his late teens and he met Wilhand in one of his first raids. So thats why he actualy felt some matter of empaty to Wilhand who was old and unarmed, he was not yet jaded by the violence and murder of the herd. And Pike was confused because she did not know about the part how Grog saved Wilhand, she only knew the part where she (as others mentioned that was Pike just with black hair) healed him.

[@MicahWo]

She knew he saved PopPop, she even said "thank you for saving my grandfather", she just didn't know he was one of the raiders in the first place.

[@SleepySlann]

It is really fitting that Grog found his way to the Trickfoot family. Pikes goddess the everlight, is a goddess of redemption. Something Pike apparently learned from her pop-pop.

[@tlaragihai5953]

I love how Madison reads the subtitles and reacts before a character could finish their phrase :DD 4:04 yes, it's the same guy! A minor thing, but it's very cool to see you recognizing things that were shown before and putting pieces together! And i actually feel sorry for Zanror. Grog has Wilhand, Pike and Vox Machina in his life, Zanror has nothing but a belief that his father is wrong. I always got chills from their dialogue in the final scene: "A challenge must be answered... even from my own son" - because, well, Kevdak won't hesitate to kill him if needed. And then Grog's shout. Amazing. I wonder if they ever show us the story where Pike's hair changes color. And yes, they should have explained that flashback better, sadly.

[@michaelkemmet834]

Real world influencing the story: The reason Grog and Pike are friends in the story is because Travis(Grog) and Ashley(Pike) were friends before the D&D campaign. Ashley wasn't originally part of the game, but Travis had to miss a session, so he asked Ashley if she wanted to take his place. For story purposes, Matt and Ashley decided Grog had gone missing from Vox Machina and the group was going to run into Pike, who was separately looking for her missing friend. This adventure is retold in one of the comic books. Ashley had such a good time during that game session that she asked to permanently join the game. The original group was: Vax, Vex, Grog, Scanlan, Tiberius(a player that was later asked to leave the show), and a helper character played by Taliesin for only that first session. After the first game session, Keyleth joined the group as Marisha shifted from helper of the newbies to being a player. A couple sessions after that, Taliesin rejoined with his new character of Percy. Finally Ashley came in with Pike a couple sessions after that. The group stayed that way through the start of the webstream until they asked Tiberius's player to leave around episode 30, near the start of the Briarwood Arc.

[@Samgreen90]

(At 5:45) THIS should have been his response: "Gorg: WHAT THE *FUCK* DID YOU JUST SAY?!"

[@jypziiatthecrossroads9047]

Scanlan had better defend kids, most of them are played by Sam Riegel's children, although they 'die' quite often in both seasons.

[@brianewing5778]

Strap in for the next episode!!! Its the best in the entire series in my opinion!

[@Samgreen90]

(At 6:40) No, that's _definitely_ Pike. Apparently, her hair turned from black to white due to the amount of stress she put herself through healing herself… after she was cut in half from the waist down.

[@InkyPetrel]

The end of this episode catches everyone out, lol, they do a good job of building the anticipation for what happens next :D It's a shame that the backstory gets a little muddled by Pike's dark hair, but yes, she knew Grog from the time Wilhand bought her to heal him, which was long before Vox Machina all met up. In DnD lore, half-giants have a comparable lifespan to humans (actually slightly shorter, around 80 years), and gnomes are on the other end of that scale, living up to 4-500 years. Wilhand is in his hundreds, I forget exactly how old, but he's elderly for a gnome, but he essentially raised Pike. There are reasons Pike grew up with him instead of the rest of their family (it was actually hinted at in a song Scanlan sang in season 1! It played over the credits of episode 9) hopefully they will explore Pike and Grog's history further, they really are such a great duo.

[@notsomagicalmike7429]

That was Pike, she had black hair before certain events that happened pre-stream and they'll probably explain in a later season, she never lived in the town so chances are the circumstances of Grog dying was never explained to her. For most of her life it's just been Wilhand & Pike, and then Grog. They've been buds for I'd say, with stream knowledge, close to a decade? Maybe just a bit less. Pike is actually older than Grog though her specific age is never disclosed, though the given range was 30s-40s. And just so you're aware, Gnomes can live 350-500 years, though still mature about the same rate as humans though their aging is slower. Goliaths live just about just less than a century.

[@gillsgills2297]

Once s2 is finished, will you be doing another TV show moment's origins reaction?

[@crystalfire5564]

I love the tiny beret!

[@mushwoom]

I'm always happy when you drop a new episode of vox machina. You are beautiful people in every way :)

[@ticozayas6430]

That was pike, the dark hair throws ppl off, (her hair changes color bc some story reasons that may or may not be revealed in the series) its also very common for ppl that have great grand parents to just say grandpa or grandma informally this extends even further to long lived races like pike that live several hundred years.

[@jetvulcan2020]

orginal post was covered by others so changed it. liked the reaction

[@carlotacosta9193]

Can't wait for the next episode

[@hi_im_ems]

ngl, episode 10 was the best one of the season, its SO GOOD

[@Baconfive0TV]

I cannot wait until for episode 10!

[@TenebrousFilms]

That *is* Pike. Her hair was black (with a purple streak) until she was bisected by a glabrezu (look it up if you dare). Her hair turned white when she was resurrected in the Everlight's temple. Saving the royal family from demonic influence and possession was the original reason VM became heroes of Emon. Scanlan illusioned the monster Grog ripped the tongue out of during their best kills montage in season 1. Oh, also, look up the Failing at Rock Paper Scissors video by SpeckoVids to see how Boulder Parchment Shears came about, it's hilarious.

[@ThaignWL]

so you know that was pike that healed grog, not pike's mom or grandma

[@MusicUnderMyBreath]

Theres a few subtle moments I appreciate so much in this episode. If you look at the herd when Kevdak is beating up Zanror and Grog, they turn their heads away. That feeling of being forced to witness abuse. You want to do something but cant because then you'll be the target. Feeling so overwhelming helpless. So you just look away, is so fucking real. I've been both the victim and a witness of abuse. (I've finally lived longer outside of a abusive home then in one, yay) A small detail that many would have overlooked and even watching people react to it dont notice it enough to point it out. But the show noticed that this isnt okay and put it in is brilliant.

[@vijayanand6650]

It’s too much effort to say great great grandfather every time. So that was Pike in the flashback.

[@zachwillett5853]

The thing that gets me is, in the game, Scanlan was a flute playing bard. Never really got a reason why he's a lute player for the show.

[@hhylobates4098]

Well you can't sing and play a wind instrument at the same time

[@suntiger745]

Grog was not a nice boy when he grew up. But he also differed from most of the Herd even back then. Watch his flashback scenes again. Grog only kills people that are actively fighting or holding weapons. He wants a fight, not slaughter. It's why he hesitates with Willhand, and decides to spare him. Kevdak on the other hand does not believe in a fair fight. The strong rule and take what they want. That is all that matters, even above kin as we saw. He was big and strong for a half giant even before he got the Titanstone Knuckles. With them, well, let's just say nobody has beaten him in a fight since he got them. The original core of the Herd of Storms were half giants, but even from the outset they made clear that anyone who was willing to fight and kill for the Herd was welcome to join them. That's why we see many different races among them. Also, this isn't actually only a Grog-centric episode, though he's featured heavily. It's tied to another character too, but you'll only see that in hindsight with the next episodes. ;) Also also, due to Travis not having thought much about his backstory, when Matt asked what his dad's name was during a session he came up with Stonejaw, forgetting in the moment that he'd picked Strongjaw as Grog's surname. So his dad's name is, officially, Stonejaw Strongjaw. :D

[@viastephtop]

I think the scene leaves out some important details: Gnomes in D&D live for hundreds of years. So them having great-great-great grandparents isn't a stretch. Often times, he's just pop pop/granddad for Pike, she only introduced him that way to scanlan because he was meeting him for the first time. In their home game, before they started broadcasting, pike had dark hair but died and the result of her resurection whited out her hair somehow. (I am fuzzy on the details) Also something I don't think the show really has shown yet, her family isn't exactly the best. She ended up with her pop pop because he too was a bit more altruistic and good, the rest of her family are known con artists and thieves.

[@vinsanity40k]

you guys are looking very loki and harley in this video. just like your shirts. 🙂

[@moarblood5120]

that was pike, u just dont call your great great grandfather.... great great. it would just be grandfather for them. Pike had normal hair up until an event in the campaign that happened way before the streaming started... you can look it up so i wont spoil but it was a big one.

[@mydude5017]

love these videos

[@Dark__Thoughts]

7:47 👀

[@LeeCarlson]

This will require that Grog discover the true source of his strength.

[@bazuchiha30]

Have you guys seen the trailer for Witcher season 3?

[@johnobrien7562]

i think an interesting difference they show is that we only see Grog killing those who have weapons, putting him already slightly better than the rest of the herd. there is a little flash of light directing Grog's attention to the locket that causes him to pause. in canon, Wilhand had been approached by the Everlight and devoted his family to her service. The Everlight is the goddess of Redemption, and that flash was the start of Grog's own redemption.

[@Mkronox]

I don't understand why everyone says that it's not fair because he has the knuckles when on a fight. Like, yeah, they are his knuckles. Even in a duel, it would be 100% fair for him to use them, especially if you are challenging him to get them, the entire "beat the previous wielder if you want them" sort of deal. Heck, Vex did that on a previous episode.