Review Prime Video Series ‘The Legend of Vox Machina’ Season 2
History lags behind, but the members of Vox Machina remain just as sympathetic.
The first season of The Legend of Vox Machina it ended with a big cliffhanger. This is immediately followed by this second season, which therefore begins with a bang. The adventuring party is honored for their heroic deeds, but then four dragons come flying in, clearly up to no good. The city is destroyed and the inhabitants have no chance. Dragons leave a chilling message: it’s their time to rule. This doesn’t bother the Vox Machina members and they go in search of the dragons for revenge.
The opening immediately plunges into the action and immediately wakes up the viewer. It’s refreshing for a series to immediately address the cliffhanger of the previous season for a change, without having to build up a few episodes first. Unfortunately, the first episode is one of the few that manages its time so effectively. After this season start, the episodes lose focus and direction.
After the explosive first episode, the Vox Machina group sets out to take revenge on the dragons. In doing so, they are thrown from the city to the dungeon into other dimensions, with no clear explanation of how or why they got there. So what doesn’t help is that they run into a new problem in all of these places that detracts from the overall story. The severity, so intensely displayed at first, diminishes considerably as a result.
In this way, the story continues and it is very difficult to keep track of what exactly is happening and why. It’s very different from the first season, which was very story focused. The second season feels more like a collection of standalone stories. Only at the end of the trip is the common thread really resumed.
The various subplots are too repetitive in terms of design and the old acquaintances and relatives of the Vox Machina members are revisited too often. On the other hand, it is interesting to know a little better the background of all the members. These give the characters more depth and become even more layered than they already were. There lies, also in this season, the strength: the characters.
In that sense, this season seems mostly like a deepening of the characters. They are still full of character and the voice acting is extremely good. Particularly clever with a party of seven characters. So they’ve been playing the characters for years on their incredibly popular YouTube series and it shows in every sentence. This works best during emotional moments when it’s hard to keep your eyes dry.
The members of Vox Machina are also not afraid to show that it is an adult series. People are beheaded, flesh melts from their faces, and all this is often accompanied by the necessary profanity. Every once in a while he goes a little too far and the many swearing sounds like the show wants to be the toughest kid in class. The adult environment is well finished off with a scene in which Boys I would be proud.
What contributes to this is the queer representation in the series. The series contains many moments, comments, and relationships that are not heteronormative. However, these are portrayed very matter-of-factly without the series patting itself on the back for it. It’s a nice move and refreshing to see this woven into the story in such a normal and natural way.
The adjusted animation and design from the first season will be maintained. Everything is tight and crisp and, at times, the animation is very original. The Legend of Vox Machina It continues to fascinate for this animation, but above all for the characters. Unfortunately, the story lags behind this time and everything has to be resolved with a gigantic cliffhanger. This feels like lazy storytelling to keep the viewer hooked. Therefore, the series is expected to regain its focus with the upcoming season. Keep those dice handy.
The Legend of Vox Machina can be seen in first video.