The Legend of Vox Machina Season 2 (2023)

Score: B+ (8.5/10)

Despite moments of shaky pacing or story and character cliches, The Legend of Vox Machina Season 2 comes alive in its second half with emotional character arcs and excellent pacing, coinciding with the series’ consistently brilliant action sequences.

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2023 delivered two of the best tabletop roleplaying adaptations created. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is an entertaining adventure filled with comedy and several moments with chaos and shenanigans galore. However, it also follows a group of so-called failures who want nothing more than to prove themselves to the world. The protagonists take it as factual and seek redemption and forgiveness, leading to many of the third act’s best moments. Shockingly, it isn’t a one-time ordeal in the movie. The Legend of Vox Machina’s first season also featured a cast with tragic backstories and a point to prove to themselves and others. The best parties tend to be the “screw-ups” because of how much growth any given character can have, with The Legend of Vox Machina Season 2 bringing it one step further than its precursor.

The Legend of Vox Machina Season 2 does two things impeccably well: character arcs and fight sequences. While both appeared throughout the first season, the second season dives deeper due to Vox Machina facing more demanding challenges to overcome, to the point where the party needs to split up to acquire what’s required to defeat the enemies teased at the end of the first season. This storytelling device allows for deeper insight into each party member. As a result, each character receives an arc propelling them towards a better, more refined person. Grog, Pike, and Scanlan explore their backstories after they and Scanlan become vulnerable not long after separating from the rest of the party. Exploring the connection between Grog and Pike is heartwarming and enlightening, eventually leading to Grog finding what motivates him to be strong.

However, out of all the character arcs, Scanlan is the highlight. From the start, the series clarifies how little people care about Scanlan, himself included. However, throughout the second season, Scanlan learns how important he is to his party despite his degenerate tendencies. His tendencies are further exploited towards the end of the season, causing him to cast aside his cowardice and selfishness to save his party. Much like the first season, where Percival was the highlight, Scanlan becomes the primary focal point throughout the second season. His arc enhances the season’s final fight sequence, arguably improving on the quick and visually impressive pacing from the first season. Simply put, The Legend of Vox Machina Season 2 doubles down on everything that made it a fantastic and entertaining series.

Unfortunately, Season 2 takes a while to get there. Despite including several great moments narratively, it’s hard to avoid the first half’s “fetch quest” nature for Vox Machina. The narrative tries its best to hide it through well-structured visuals and character arcs, but it never makes its true intent disappear from view. The issue arguably comes down to its pacing, failing to slow down in its first half before getting to the rest of the season’s best moments. The first half’s pacing didn’t help draw out the story or character cliches, either. The season’s predominant issues would’ve remedied itself if the series took more time to get through the first half before moving onto its ladder half. However, it's understandable why they tried getting through it rather quickly, as splitting the season into two would make the narrative lose some cohesion and depth.

I’ve been a fan of Critical Role for quite a while now. Not merely because of the fantastic narrative Matthew Mercer delivers to the party and the audience but because each party member heightens the experience for all through their commitment to their respective characters. The Legend of Vox Machina is a perfect example, with every party member giving audiences more and more reasons to root for them as the series progresses. People will notice how meaningful each character is to their respective roleplayer in the tabletop campaign and the series. Despite Season 2 featuring a few more wonky moments narratively, its ladder half delivers on what makes the party so remarkable to so many people: they’re a group of failures learning what it takes to be good people.