They are ALL THE WAY UP THERE! // Legend of Vox Machina S2x11 REACTION!

[@SeanTanktop]

This episode went up and inside ALOT of things this week!! Hit up Patreon.com/SeanTanktop for EARLY & UNCUT reaction to the S2 FINALE RIGHT NOW for only $5l!!

[@elbruces]

In a world where necromancers make zombies, vampires and all sorts of other undead creatures, having somebody's job being guarding the line between life and death is pretty clear.

[@HausOfTheBat]

Vex, as a Ranger, has the ability to have a favored enemy and in the campaign Laura chose Vex’s favored enemy to be dragons, that’s why she gets those headaches @16:32 when dragons are near, she can sense them!

[@transientanus]

Vax's story heavily reflects what was going on in Liam O'Brien's life at the time. He had just lost his mother, he had a major health scare of his own, and had sank into a pretty heavy depression. He and matt, the DM, are very close friends so Matt and Liam worked together to craft the story in a way that would allow him to work some of the things he was dealing with. Namely the acceptance of death and its part in life. Thus Vax dealing with accepting The Raven Queen.

[@CurseTheCosmos]

Yeah, I remember that time. I’ll never forget that one shot he did where everyone played as themselves in a post apocalyptic setting. You could tell he was using the medium to let go of some heavy baggage. I’m glad he’s doing okay now.

[@transientanus]

@@CurseTheCosmos "My life is richer for having known you.....friend" Even with Liam doing his speak-and-spell voice it was so heartbreakingly beautiful!

[@CurseTheCosmos]

@@transientanus Watching that live was truly special. The climax had the chat at a standstill.

[@mariebourgot4949]

I didn't know any of that, but that's very sad and beautiful in the same time, so thanks for sharing!

[@VegetaLF7]

Exactly. To add to this, the Deathwalker's Ward was originally intended to be for Percy as Liam was strongly considering bowing out of the game entirely due to all those issues, but when it was Vex that died to the trap and Liam saw Laura realizing she just was about to lose her beloved character, he chose to stick with it and RP it out, offering his own character to give life back to hers. He was fully prepared to leave then and there, but instead it became an avenue for Matt to help his friend out through some tough times and work things through.

[@camiart_casual]

“Do they see immortality as blasphemy?” Morgan hitting the nail on the head!

[@mkang8782]

Kenny is such an MVP with the edits and bits of DnD knowledge. He already pointed it out in the edit, but, it bears repeating: the Raven Queen's bit about the "sanctity of death" is because there are ways that mortals attempt to avoid or subvert it. Pretty much every undead entity (skeleton, zombie, ghoul, ghast, wraith, mummy, lich, et al) corrupt that process, and that's what she's on about.

[@carlotacosta9193]

Scanlan's speech to Kailey is SO SO GOOD in the game, they somewhat reference it in the episode but the fact that it was all improvised and its better than a lot of written things blows my mind

[@sodasaintcommentaries4054]

Speaks of the sheer talent at the CR table, that's for sure.

[@CliffSedge-nu5fv]

Sam Riegel is damned-good at his job!

[@Phi1618033]

Vax' connection to the Matron of Ravens is something that plays out right up until the end of the campaign (probably end of season 5 or 6). It's a slow build, but it's epic.

[@natanaru]

This should cover all of campaign one correct? So it should be something like 6 season you think?

[@Phi1618033]

@@natanaru They certainly have enough story for 6 seasons.

[@meghanmcgowan7748]

11:36 Kenny PLEASE show them this clip from the campaign and some of the good goofy sibling moments between the twins so they get why we're all so emotional over them 😭 basically anything that has to do with the boots of haste is good for counteracting the incest vibes the show has lol

[@Dannydarko27]

10:20 technically for those of us who saw the campaign this is our Snyder cut. All the things the antagonists do behind the dm screen is finally being shown to us. Sure this is more of a condensed story, but we're still getting so much more we never knew

[@VegetaLF7]

Exactly. Take season 1 for example, all the Briarwood stuff when our heroes weren't there was brand new. Hell, their backstory didn't even get revealed to us until the end of campaign wrap up, it didn't come up in the actual campaign itself.

[@PuffyCloud_aka_puffeclaude]

We knew, we just had to wait for alot of it til after it was over. It really is a masterful adaptation. They put one hell of a writing staff together.

[@sodasaintcommentaries4054]

The line Kaylie says here is very profound: "I'll leave you with this burden". Not only did Kaylie know killing Scanlan would be wrong and committing fratricide, she'd just be giving him yet another ouit. So she did the one thing that would pierce Scanlan deeper than any spell or sword: the revelation that he was an absent father. And clearly, from his reaction, that was definitely the most effective way. In both this version and the game version, this would be a HUGE turning point in Scanlan's story arc. It went on to completely redefine him as a character.

[@mariebourgot4949]

*parricide. Fratricide would be if they were brother and sister. :)

[@sodasaintcommentaries4054]

@@mariebourgot4949 That's what I get for trying to type this late at night, lol! Yes, patricide. XD

[@yiklongtay6029]

If we want to be generous with the interpretation, Kaylie accurately read Scanlan like a book where Scanlan is scummy but also just responsible enough to feel terrible. The knowledge of her existence wouldn't have fazed a complete scumbag. Emotional damage is an artform

[@Ozgarthefighter]

The reveal pretty much happened the same way in-game. The major difference was that she wasn't persuaded to not stab him. Matt, however, rolled a natural 1 which results in a critical fail, and decided to turn the strike into an awkward hug.

[@syntia13]

I strongly disagree about the sameness of it. In the game, they were sitting at a table, fully dressed, armed and on equal footing. So when Scanlan said 'you can kill me, I won't stop you' - it had actual meaning and weight to it. Saying the same while tied up and helpless is pretty meaningless. In the game, it was a choice. In the series, it was acknowledgement of the situation. I'm sure it was Sam's decision, but it was disservice to Scanlan all the same.

[@mattiekarwin3667]

In the campaign it's made more clear that Kailey specifically wanted to trap Scanlan with seduction because that's what he used to trap her mom, so to speak. 'Today I beat you at your own song.'

[@hhylobates4098]

Oh, duh me, I had just thought she meant it literally by apparently out-barding him: beating him in the flute duel and winning all his money.

[@AAAndrew]

We all love Kenny the Editor. He is us.

[@DarkElfPaladin]

Just wanted to shout out kenny the editor. Always love to see your inserts.

[@Huskeybear76]

Those gold strings are the threads of fate tying things together.

[@ryanotorpedo]

Kenny the editor MVP again! Well done sir well done

[@Bigsteelguy4]

Did you guys forget there were zombie dogs, zombies, wraiths and a Vampire in season 1? When she told Vax to protect death, means, nothing should be revived or cheating death. No zombies or wraiths or Vampires, and whatever else that is cheating death out there. He has the power to bend fate, and shepherd the souls to her. We'll probably learn more in season 3, but we atleast got some explanation this episode.

[@freefall945]

Love the reaction, and your commentary on the Vax\Scanlan stuff. They’re bros passing each other on their journeys opposite ways. Vax is being forced to undertake a journey alone for the first time after a life of depending on someone. Scanlan is confronted with a chance to matter to someone after a lifetime of consequence free independence. People need individuality and community, I guess.

[@girllord78]

Also liked post reaction disscusiion! But also how well it transitioned to topic of lizard's/dragon's anatomy

[@mariebourgot4949]

Love your comment! :)

[@Belphegor82]

What Dustin says at 27:04 is really giving me "I guess it's just easier to laugh at the world when you don't care about it" vibes. *You* know. winkwinknudgenudgecrycry

[@PuffyCloud_aka_puffeclaude]

In this world, death has enemies. There are those who wish to cheat death, you've met one already, she was a necromancer. Queenie don't like necromancers, or anything connected to undeath. There are also many powerful, magical, and extra-planar entities. Some of them seek to divert souls from their intended fate, and on some planes, those souls are commodified. Then there are those with even greater ambitions... Love you, Kenny.

[@VegetaLF7]

Exactly. She doesn't mind resurrections and healing as those are simply delaying the inevitable, she'll claim them eventually. But those who seek immortality or undeath are abominations in her eyes and are the ones she and her champions hunt down.

[@bcn1gh7h4wk]

in the live show, Scanlan simply teleports inside Umbrasyl's guts, blind. I think it's Vax who cuts him out of there, from the outside.

[@mayz7753]

Actually, Vax downed a potion that shrunk him to Scanlan's size, then Scanlan dimension-door'd inside the dragon with Vax (Dimension Door only allows you to teleport alongside people the same size as you or smaller). But, Scanlan ended up in the stomach while Vax ended up just outside the stomach in muscle tissue

[@transientanus]

0:48 and morgan IMMEDIATELY makes me laugh while taking a drink 😂

[@Phi1618033]

The Matron of Ravens is neither good nor bad. She's neutral, just like life.

[@Wanttowrite]

She's like Discworld's Death: Neutral, but they have standards And woe to anyone who doesn't meet those standards.

[@GeneralTso09]

I feel like it is a mirror of Hades and Thanatos for the Matron and Vax. The lord of death, and the grim reaper.

[@WoeUponThee]

​@generaltso0986 It's more like the Matron is Thanatos, and Vax is Hermes. Her control isn't over the dead, but rather the moment someone dies.

[@yiklongtay6029]

14:37 each settlement tends to have multiple temples to worship various gods. Even Whitestone has three temples, one for the god of the Sun (obviously), the God of law, and the Goddess of Death (yes her). Temples to the goddess of death is kinda common as death is a universal experience.

[@Dillsfawn]

Scanlan at this point is around 69 years old(yes that age was a purposeful choice by the player as a joke). As a Gnome, he can live a few hundred years. So from a Gnomish perspective he is still quite young. IIRC, his daughter is around 29.

[@teresaharris9134]

raven queen is the goddess of death and fate. those are the threads of fate. how they are bound together as her champion vax can see them

[@misteryman526]

Sanctity of life probably refers to dealing with nonsense like Vecna the Lich that that necromancer and her vampire boytoy were summoning last season.

[@TomVCunningham]

I was about to write a comment about them not understanding Vax's purpose as the Matron of Raven's (Raven Queen) champion, but Kenny the editor swooped in for the win! 😂

[@Serevuin]

You guys pretty much nailed the main points of the Matron of Ravens in your after-episode discussion. In a world filled with resurrection magic, vampires, liches and other freaky things that interfere with the natural order, death really can be a mere inconvenience. The Matron seeks to ensure that death isn't treated as an inconvenience, thus ensuring that people appreciate life. Immortality *is* blasphemy, but by the same token the wanton death the dragons are causing (and the plans of the Briarwoods tried to enact last season) upsets the balance of fate and death. In a more general D&D sense, gods typically have a more hands-off approach to things, and use their clerics or champions to enact their plans in the mortal realms, and Vax has just accepted his role as the Matron's champion in this respect.

[@DracheLehre]

The Matron won’t be the only deity Vox Machina contacts in a similar manner.

[@Peanutbutter2512]

The Raven Queen is the lawful neutral goddess of death in this universe. Her niche in the pantheon oversees the moment a soul passes from mortal life on to the beyond. Previously, the god of death was cruel to departed souls. Being dead was torturous to the departed and bare souls did not pass peacefully into the next stage of life. The Raven Queen usurped this cruel god of death (she is the only mortal to ascend to godhood in recorded history in this pantheon) and now peacefully surveys the passage of departed souls. Necromancy and similar magics pervert the natural cycle of death and are an offense to the Raven Queen. As her champion, Vax is assigned the duty of safeguarding the line between death and undeath--cut down zombies, deal justice to necromancers, etc.

[@mariebourgot4949]

Wow, cool! :)

[@Kimbrell]

"Half a chub"... having flashbacks of Tiberiua/Orion

[@AnxietyRat]

Ooooof. Yeah...🤮

[@maxmustsleep]

Great episode, love your discussion at the end!

[@TimmyJEuchida]

Vex's ranger class gets favoured enemy; in this case Dragons, that makes her aware of them within a certain range, hence the headaches

[@christopherjunkins]

I'm with you Kenny... those words... ouch every, single...time... 😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@gconnor18]

About the ‘can you talk’ in the other 2 campaigns, funnily enough Travis’ characters all end up with a weapon that talks to him.

[@VegetaLF7]

The group's reaction in C3 when his new sword started talking to him *again* was phenomenal

[@dead_and_devine1505]

dig the reactions, If you didnt know, they are animating their second campaign now "Mighty Nein".

[@ggagg123]

Love Vox machina show. And love your videos Sean, they make the shows your review extra special! In fact, they are so good I've signed up as a Patreon.

[@SeanTanktop]

You honor us!! Thank you so much!!

[@jasonmarbach]

11:39 same, Kenny. Same 😭

[@areopanda1664]

I actually really needed this episode Kenny’s DnD lesson

[@jcnorn]

Morgan coming in with that science

[@TheDerMiku]

Oh heeeelll yeah, Im stoked :)

[@christopherjunkins]

Gold'n lines are threads of fate.

[@GiantDivineMoth]

as a long time cr fan i gotta say, considering how nasty/raunchy the cast is i find it a tiny bit funny that people are getting annoyed over the silly jokes, it jjust some silly fun guys😂

[@thompsonb905]

please tell me you guys are going to watch the source material?

[@AnxietyRat]

They have mentioned looking into some of the original clips of the campaign that people have linked in the comments... But did not react to it on their channel so we have to assume that if they do delve into the source material that they will not react to it, unfortunately. I would absolutely love to see some more people react to the original campaign so that they can experience how full and fleshed out and intricate the relationships between the characters are but most people aren't doing that. Which is also understandable because it's a really big time sink...but yeah... The odds are NOT in our favor that they will react to anything additional ...not even the behinds the scenes content of season 1.

[@jasonmarbach]

Y’all should check out My Adventures With Superman next. I know, I know, but trust me. It’s actually great. Maybe the best version of supes/Clark ever (and definitely the best versions of Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen ever), all done by the same animation studio who did Legend of Korra and a bunch of other beautifully animated properties.

[@johnobrien7562]

The Matron of Ravens prevented Pike and Kashaw from resurrecting Vex until Vax made his deal, then locked him in her armor after he got his ass kicked by Purvan Suul until he submitted. She severed his connection to his sister, and then plagued him with visions for several days. When he finally answered her call, he again had to surrender himself to "death", whereupon she appears and speaks softly and gives him purpose. there's nothing at all creepy about that, right? (good call about saying he's gone evangelical!) And yes, I would definitely have expected a cloaca.

[@Ozgarthefighter]

I, for the life of me, can't understand why people get bent out of shape over your incest jokes. The CR crew themselves are some of the raunchiest people out there. They'd be laughing along with you 😂

[@queenidragon4489]

My best guess is that it's overdone I've watched a lot of vox machina reactions and it became stale pretty fast it's probably worse for people who have known these characters for years and heard the same thing getting repeated over and over

[@SeanBoyce-gp]

It's mostly just uninteresting. It doesn't bother me, I just also sometimes feel like "ok. Yeah. That joke again..that was definitely worth making."

[@PuffyCloud_aka_puffeclaude]

Truth is, some are pretty precious about the twins. I'm not. I love them all, and the jokes were plenty funny. My wife on the other hand... well we have two black cats from the same litter. One is male, the other female. Wanna guess their names?

[@jduchiha4656]

I just get bothered by how random it seems. Also the whiplash from their reaction to Scanlan's situation after all that

[@AnxietyRat]

​@@jduchiha4656it's because there's a difference between joking about incest and then actually having it partially played out in the actual canon... That's why the group had a different reaction to the jokes that they're making about Vex and Vax's codependency and then Scanlan and Kaylies situation.... You can see how the context is different, yes?

[@Phi1618033]

Sean pretending not to joke about incest is the most disingenous thing ever.

[@CoL_Drake]

The string are the fate. The Raven queen is the goddess of death and fate (and winter but who cares)

[@Raviteja-ho4zu]

We are waiting for bhahubali reaction

[@mckinleyjotheweirdo]

Hey fam, you wont have my ire for making funny Vax/Vex jokes, because Laura Bailey would make far worse jokes 😂

[@VegetaLF7]

I'm just waiting for a certain bathtub scene next season

[@debanjandutta3834]

Hope we get Jujutsu Kaisen as replacement of this show.

[@magp1001]

10:47 -- So did Mengele... ::ducking::

[@mhelvens]

About the "death gives meaning to life" thing. I don't buy it. She wasn't spitting facts, she was spitting clichés. 😅

[@VegetaLF7]

She's literally Death itself, she's the Grim Reaper, she's about as classic as you can get with the concept of death. Her whole thing is all life ultimately ends, she's the caretaker of those who do. Her enemies are those who try to cheat death, to gain immortality or to twist it to their own ends like undead and necromancers. Death does give meaning to life, the realization of how fragile it is is what makes it so precious. The Matron doesn't kill needlessly, but rather shepherds the souls of those who eventually die.

[@mhelvens]

@@VegetaLF7I have no problem with the character. It's a classic one, as you say. But I want to challenge those who say she's speaking wisdom. Death doesn't give meaning to life. That's just a comforting lie we've learned to tell ourselves because death is inevitable. It stops us from funding research into radical life extension.