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The Fandom Portals Podcast
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The Fandom Portals Podcast
Critical Role's Spellbinding Saga, Exploring the D&D Inspiration Behind "The Legend of Vox Machina" with Adam Brasher
What happens when a band of voice actors brings their beloved Dungeons & Dragons campaign to life in an animated series? Join me, along with my brilliant co-host Adam Brasher, as we explore the world of "The Legend of Vox Machina," the Amazon show that shattered Kickstarter records. We dive into the vibrant tapestry of D&D that this series presents, weaving together the creativity of its star-studded cast—including talents like Tony Hale, Stephanie Beatriz, and David Tennant—and the community-driven spirit that brought it to life. Hear Adam's journey back into D&D and his insights into portraying characters in his own podcast.
From spell mishaps to Scanlan's antics with the Bag of Holding, our conversation unveils the clever nods to D&D mechanics and Critical Role moments—elements that offer a comforting sense of nostalgia for fans. Alongside these insights, we celebrate the series' ability to seamlessly adapt D&D's intricate gameplay into a cinematic narrative.
Finally, we shine a light on the Easter eggs and nods sprinkled throughout the series, from a little red ferret to a sandal in a jar. It's a treasure trove for Critical Role fans, filled with magical items and comical in-game struggles. Whether you're a long-time D&D enthusiast or a newcomer to the series, this episode offers a joyous celebration of all things Vox Machina.
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What D&D elements inspired the legend of Vox Machina, the fastest Kickstarter-backed project in history. Hey everybody, Aaron, here from the Fandom Portals podcast. This week I sat down with Adam Brasher, who is a very close friend of mine and fellow cast member of the D&D Valiant Odyssey podcast, and we discussed Vox Machina that's right, the legend of Vox Machina, the D&D-inspired cartoon that is taking Amazon by storm. It is a Kickstarter-funded project and it is the fastest one to break the record for being backed by more than 88,000 people. In this episode, we discuss the Dungeons and Dragons elements that inspired the show. You'll discover all of the inclusive and creative content creators that are behind the cartoon itself and how a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors turned their Dungeons Dragons tabletop campaign into a cartoon that everybody can't get enough of. So sit back, relax and enjoy this episode of the Fandom Portals podcast featuring myself and Adam Brasher.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Fandom Portals podcast, where your curiosity meets community in a celebration of all things geek. We build connections on every episode by delving into your favorite fandom questions in the time it takes you to roll three natural 20s in a row. I'm your host, Aaron Davies, and today we are thrilled to be joined by the legendary Brash Rackham, better known as Adam Brasher, Professional D&D player who lives and breathes tabletop roleplaying. He's one of the voices behind the incredible D&D Valiancy podcast, where he brings to life the characters of Felix and Liliana Unalae. Whether you're a seasoned adventurer or just starting your first campaign, Adam's stories, insights and energy will take your love for D&D to the next level. First of all, he's a really good friend of mine and I'm really stoked to have him here. So, Adam, how are you going? What's been going on with you?
Speaker 2:I'm very good, I'm very busy and I'm glad to actually be back.
Speaker 1:Let's get a little bit of an insight on you. You've been playing D&D for a while and you have a really interesting story with Critical Role, which is going to be the topic of today's podcast. Do you want to give us a brief rundown of your history with Dungeons Dragons?
Speaker 2:Yep. So I played a little bit back when I was in my wee years of high school. I then got off of it a lot because you know peer pressure of like things weren't as cool as they could be and you know you have to try and be cool, especially later in high school. Yeah, and then after years of neglecting a lot of my nerd side, I um, it was just one day I was like you know what? I want to play dnd again, and so I just started this facebook page and got a whole bunch of people to come and organize something with the gaming pie here in townsville and got a whole hundred people to rock up to this bar and all play dungeon dragons. So that was the reigniting of my dungeon and I was hoping just to play.
Speaker 2:But then I ended up DMing for a lot of people and then eventually found my GeoTable, which was really great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's how we met. Actually, we met through some people that actually went to that event that we know mutually. And then, yeah, you came and joined the D&D Valiant Odyssey podcast table and the rest between you and I is history. You play Felix and you play Liliana Unali. What's your experience been like on the podcast of D&D Valiant Odyssey? And then we'll go on to talk about some critical role stuff.
Speaker 2:I'd love to have a second to it. Like I really had a really soft spot for Felix because just how I think he brought out like the pureness in myself even as well, because he was so like always on the straight and narrow and like he was always trying his best to be the best person he could be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the ups and downs of the D&D table, it definitely brings out the best and the worst of us. But I agree, I think Felix was a bright light at the table. I think it was a really great sort of character to come and join a party and, yeah, you played him to perfection. So if you guys want to go and check out Adam Brasher playing Felix a adorably awesome tabaxi then make sure you go and check out the D&D Valiant Odyssey podcast.
Speaker 1:That one's hosted by yours truly as well. But today we're here for a different reason. Here on Phantom Portals, we are looking at the Legend of Vox Machina. We're looking at this because it's part of our October run of animation celebration, celebrating the 28th of October being International Animation Day, and this animation is a star-studded one, not only because it has a great cast, but also because this one is inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. It's a cartoon that was initially funded by Kickstarter and broke the record for the fastest back project on the platform. It actually secured $11.3 million from more than 88,000 people, and that was only in 45 days, and today we are deep diving on this beloved piece of art. So by the end of this podcast, with the help of Brash Rackham, you guys will uncover the Easter eggs hidden in episodes one and two of the Legend of Vox Machina and see how they capture the essence of the ttrpg and its transition into animation. You'll discover which dungeons and dragons elements inspired some of the greatest moments in the show, diving deep into the lore and mechanics behind them. You'll get to know some of the most inclusive and creative content creators, as we share their passion for critical role, dungeons and dragons and animation and the collaborative magic behind it, and along the way, you'll learn more about D&D, its rich world and how it continues to influence pop culture today. So, brash, are you ready to jump into Episodes 1 and Episodes 2 of the Legend of Vox Machina? I am Very good, all right, beautiful.
Speaker 1:So these two episodes are titled the Terror of Tal'Dorei, part one and part two, and it's a really great jumping in point for anybody who's into sort of fantasy-esque cartoons.
Speaker 1:It has a great cast of characters and I think we might go to start off with by giving just a brief rundown of the show. So it's basically surrounding this party of adventurers, obviously inspired by D&D, who have a varying range of abilities. At the start of this TV show they're kind of mercenaries looking for work and they're banded together for no reason in particular other than they're all kind of just losers, and then, as the show goes on, they kind of bond and become a found family, you might say, and they face challenges along the way, using their abilities and strengths to make the group as a whole a unified and fighting force in the land of Teldoreore. So each episode actually is inspired by the campaign run by matthew mercer, created through critical role, and it has a cast of a few of the different voice actors that he plays with. So did you want to go through some of those for me, adam, and tell us a little bit about, uh, the characters that they play as well?
Speaker 2:just briefly yep, so the actual ceo now ofle, which is Travis Willingham. You also might know him. He's the voice of Roy Mustang from Fullmetal Alchemist. He's also the voice of Thor from the monster animations. He is a phenomenal voice actor and he's actually, probably, out of all the cast members, probably my favorite. I'm even wearing the Strongjaw Ale shirt. That's based off of his character, grog Strongjaw, who is a Goliath barbarian, but you'll notice, in the show they call him a giant because of distancing a little bit from the terminology yeah, wizards of the Coast yeah.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, you'll see him being referred to as a giant, rather than but yeah, he is the barbarian strong man, very dumb, yet somehow, sometimes, sometimes and this has happened throughout the actual campaign itself as well he'll have sparks of like genius, and then they'll be like wow, you're actually not as dumb as we think you are. And then he'll say something's dumb and they're like there, it is just to prove that point. Yeah, that's it. Uh. And he always closely followed by Patrick foot, playedley johnson, who is also the voice of ellie in the last of us, and she also played ellie's mom in the live action tv show. She plays pike trickfoot, the cleric gnome, her grandfather actually rescued grog. Then you have scanlon shortholt, who's played by sam regal, who has done many voices for games and anime, but he's also very proficient in the casting aspect of it. So he does a lot of casting for shows and he's casting as a crafting director. He's Jen Charlot, the classic bard, and by classic bard I mean the one that is always memed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a little cheeky, A little cheeky.
Speaker 2:He's especially little cheeky, a little cheeky. He's especially cheeky in the show. Then you have the twins Vex and Vax, played by Laura Bailey and Liam O'Brien, again, both massive voice actors. Laura especially she's done everything from playing Trunks in Dragon Ball Z, black Widow, but they play the twins, the half-elf twins, vax being the rogue, or Vax'ldan being the rogue, loves these daggers, and Vex is the ranger with her bear trinket. Then you have Percy I'm not going to try and say his whole name.
Speaker 1:Yes, he's got a mouthful of one.
Speaker 2:Mouthful of a name but Percy de Rolo III. He was the first, probably adoration of like a a gunslinger, yeah, um, in probably the 5e of dnd it was a created she created for his character. He has a very troubled backstory um, which is in season two. And then we've got uh, keyleth played by marisha ray, um Keyleth played by Marisha Ray, um she I at. I at first, when I first started watching Box of Magnar, was a little eh about some Keyleth, but very quickly she really ruled me as like, because she's that she's sort of the same as Felix in a way.
Speaker 2:She's sort of that happy-go-lucky, like come on gang, let's go be positive, and then um, the heart of the crew yeah, exactly, and like, at first it annoyed me, then like it really grew on me, like she, she wormed her way in, but, um, yeah, so she plays keyless, uh, the era shari, and she's um running around the world trying to do her amante, which is which, if, once she, if she completes it, she becomes the new leader of the ashari. Um, uh, and who are we missing? We're missing matthew. Matthew, or the dm, who plays a variety of characters. He's an amazing voice actor and an amazing dm.
Speaker 1:so, yeah, they're very, they're a very talented crew and they've definitely taken their passion for dungeons and dragons and really run with it. So I think, with our character introductions aside, we'll jump into the episodes. Episode 1, obviously titled the Terror of Tal'Dorei Terror of Tal'Dorei, yeah, part 1.
Speaker 2:Part 1, part 2.
Speaker 1:Yeah, part 1 we'll jump into, and I think the first thing that was noticeable to me was the well, two things In the introduction scene. Obviously Matt is doing the narration over the top of the introduction to to the first show and the camera flare at the very start. Obviously in the centers features a d20 sort of shape. That was the first thing. But then the second thing you see that raven sort of swoop through which is obviously reminiscent in the title sequence as well, the raven obviously being a symbol later on in critical role. That is very, very important.
Speaker 1:Uh, linked to the character of Axel Dahn, he is eventually, through various courses of action, going to be the, the matron of the raven, queen, and that is her symbology and she sort of looks after death and life and the transition and the journey throughout both of those. But she's also very well associated with the threads of life as well and you'll see in the start sequence where all of those golden threads just sort of whip around all of the characters and that is supposed to be a metaphor for like destiny and the way that their, their destiny is sort of intertwined as characters that bring them all together.
Speaker 2:So that was the very start and that nod yeah to the raven queen yeah, because you'll you'll notice a lot of ravens throughout the whole entire show, actually just here and there. You'll just see them all over this place, which is the because the whole entire campaign like campaign one, though you don't really notice it until the end is heavily revolved around the Raven Queen. But yeah, it's probably one of my favorite parts of the show. And it's just a quick part. It's the first adventures you meet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, called the Metaverse.
Speaker 2:And you see them staying on the hill and they all have similar mechanisms to some, like characters from a little known book movie, maybe lord of the rings, and then they all just get wiped out.
Speaker 1:Absolutely no, that's. That's a really great sort of opening too, and I love the fact that they're called the, the murder hobos. Can you tell everybody in this listing, like, what's it? What's a murder hobo? Why is that significant to dnd? Because they put that in that in there purposefully for everybody that knew if your group on murder hobos.
Speaker 1:That means you just go around and you pretty much kill everything and you don't really focus on any part of the actual story you just kill things because you know murder hoboing can be fun for the person doing it but obviously for the other people they're trying to enjoy in the dm's crafted the story for you, it can be a little harsh, so Wizard of the Coast sort of allowing that sort of line for those sort of players as well, bringing out the campaign for them.
Speaker 1:I thought it was a bit sort of tongue-in-cheek that the creators here of the Vox Machina cartoon actually killed the moths straight away, like absolutely annihilated them in the most destructive way possible.
Speaker 2:Just to show hobos is not a thing that they enjoy here at critical role. And another thing on it all I like and I think it shows is that this isn't a kid's cartoon. Yeah, because the live action is very heavily like no blood and guts and gore and obviously like it's described in the show. But, um, like in in their show they swear like sailors.
Speaker 1:Lots of adult themes in the in the twitch live stream show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I like how like the straight away, they're like the first scene. This is what you're gonna expect from the show?
Speaker 1:yeah, exactly, and I think you know that it probably didn't catch many people off guard because those that watch the show and back the show know exactly what they're in for for it. So, yeah, um, and you know that's a pretty quick point for parents to sort of click it off if they've accidentally what I think yeah, not on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, after this scene we kind of transition onto a beautiful shot of amman, and then we get to see the council of taldore, and they have got some stars behind the mic. So, first of all, sir finn's, played by tony hale, you've got, uh, keema of Vaud by Stephanie Beatriz. Heaps and heaps more throughout the series as well. The guest stars that they've got here are just absolutely 10 out of 10, including, like General Krieg, voiced by David Tennant in his traditional Scottish, which you rarely see so thick as well. And then, you know, as this series goes on, you see more and more of these stars, including, including, you know, like troy baker later makes an appearance, and they even have billy boyd, who played pippin in the lord of the rings. Like these sort of guest stars are sort of reminiscent to me of some of the the guest stars that they have on the critical role live stream as well, because they do have people coming in from time to time to play various different characters and then, after we sort of move in from the council, then obviously telling everybody that the place is under siege from this massive threat, this unknown threat. That's sort of carousing through the land. They talk about needing the best mercenaries in the land and we smash cut to possibly the worst mercenaries in the entire land, which is the tribe of Vox Machina, and we see them in a scene that is very, very common in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. To be the first ever combat scenario that you do.
Speaker 1:I think it was really awesome that they they included like little little tidbits like this, that sort of make the D&D knowledge base in the in the fans just sort of come to life, where you know Goliath says, oh, giant kin are usually known to be extremely competitive, and they put that in the show, in this small piece of dialogue, just for those real fans to just sort of you know, get behind and and know, just have to have that gotcha moment um, when they move into the combat, though of the bar scene, there are so many various different spells and moves and little tidbits from the show that we can sort of pick apart as well.
Speaker 1:So, one of them obviously, being keyless grasping vines, which we talked a bit off mark about, knowing that sort of keyless does the hand motion from the live show every time that her character does it in the animated show. Uh, they've actually included that in there as well, which is another nod to the great tv show and a great sort of easter egg as well yeah, yeah, marisha ray's famous hand up and grasped down for all the spell casting, which is, yeah, she just put the dramatic into it.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, and even even percy, with his misfiring I mean the misfire of his gun yeah, because that happens way too often in the actual live action show. But for percy he always like critically when it's critically needed his gun will misfire and he'll have to spend a turn fixing his gun.
Speaker 1:Fixing it, yeah, which is a dnd mechanic, obviously, as you said, that they made for that campaign being brought over from pathfinder. But obviously as he rolled a one, the gun would break. He'd have to spend that time sort of repairing it as well. I even liked where, um, they showed vax and vex, which is the two half elf twins for the first time. You know vax, is there sort of pickpocketing during the fight and throwing the gold to vex? And they did that because in the live show the player who played vex, laura bailey, was actually responsible for the party's funds and she actually was a character that was pretty money hungry, wasn't she?
Speaker 2:she was a bit of a gold quarter yep, and they uh, relentlessly made fun of her for it during the show and even in the other campaigns. They continuously like they'll say, hey, hey, laurie, your Vex is showing. Yes, yeah, when money gets involved. So, yes, I thought it was a really good nod to that, and how money hungry that she really is. Yeah, I do like the introduction of Scanlon, though, too, during the bar fight, doing what he does best. Absolutely yeah. Serenading the bar owner's daughter. Absolutely yeah. Serenading the bar keeps all the bar owner's daughter.
Speaker 1:Exactly, yeah, in classic Bard fashion. You know Sam Riegel plays the Bard so well and you know he's actually made Bards famous because of the way that he played Scanlon Shorthalt and you know they've really sort of put him in the thick of it literally and you know you really get a good glimpse of that character and sort of harkens back to how he was played by sam in the live show as well.
Speaker 1:I even liked how, you know, pike does her sort of yellow shield that goes around her forearm, denoting the shield of faith shield of faith, yeah, which is a dnd spell that you know obviously augments your your ac to plus two as well, and it's just those small nods that us as dnd players and anybody sort of watching can just sort of pick up as you're looking at it, and it's almost like a you could do it as a game almost, or like a Where's Wally? You could find the D&D moments in this sort of area. It's really really good for the fans, make a good drinking game, yeah, and even the moment where Vax is throwing the dagger and he has that returning dagger, a classic sort of weapon that is symbolic of Vax. But he also, if you look closely, you can see him wearing the green belt that he wears early on in the campaign. That's sort of shaped like the snake yeah, because you know that's Simon his pet snake from the show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which he uses in the third episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, she uh uses in the third episode. Yeah, yeah, uh. Did you know that the uh the bartender was actually a kickstarter created character character.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So sam liam and travis made made that character with, you know, the kickstarter backers, and it was voiced as well by by mason alexander park, and you know that's a really great sort of fan service and something that this, this crew of critical role, is known for is, you know, they love their critters, they involve them wherever they can, and this is just another nod to that. So I really loved the addition of that sort of minotaur like character with the pink hair behind the bar. That was obviously created by the kickstarter backers I love how.
Speaker 2:I love how she's, and I wish they'd make more of these kind of characters like actual characters in like D&D itself, like the shape-shifting characters yeah, so like there's even in now campaign 3, you've got Travis playing that werewolf character that pretty much Matt builds because there is no real. Like you've got the shifters but then nothing. That really is like okay, I'm going from a human transforming into a werewolf. Yeah, yeah, really like that. There's like ones where you grow a bit more facial hair and grow some teeth and you get some sharp claws and that's about it.
Speaker 1:You get a bit more animalistic, but yeah unless you're going down the druid route and actually you know wild shaping yeah there's nothing, nothing other than that. So yeah, I really like that.
Speaker 2:They sort of added the creative. She just seemed like a like. She had like the purple skin saying that she probably wasn't entirely human. But she like walked up and then just turned into this minotaur and I'm like, so it's sort of like she's turned into like a werebull or something like that yeah, it's a really cool addition and showing how creative they are as well.
Speaker 1:You know we we then go outside of the bar, they're obviously kicked out. They say that. You know, they've been kicked out of every single bar in amman and scan. Scanlan puts his loot into the Bag of Holding, which is another great D&D sort of reference, a Bag of Holding being a bag that holds literally anything that you can carry, which beats the encumbrance math for all those D&D players out there, which we absolutely love, because encumbrance rules are rubbish. And then, as Scanlan needs to go and relieve himself, we see a very special NPC.
Speaker 2:So in just about every episode you'll see a character that very distinctly reminds you of a certain DM of a very famous D&D show, critical Role, and he always seems to have his head pop in here and there. But you'll see a guard posting up the sign, looking for adventurers to track down some vicious creature that's been destroying farmland.
Speaker 1:And while Scanlan's relieving himself, nurses this, turns and pees on said Matt Mercer's foot yeah, you know, which I think is an allegory for all the times that Sam Regal, as a player, has actually, you know, wrecked Matt's plans in the most comical and also, you know, really brilliant of ways.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I think it's, it's awesome to see Matt's likeness in the show. You know, being the creator of the whole entire universe and actually seeing him amongst the characters of voxmark, and it was really heartwarming to me as well. But, yeah, I you know you do see him in quite a few episodes. So if you're watching this for the first time or you hadn't noticed that before, definitely go and do a rewatch and see how many times you can spot matt mercer throughout the the episodes. Another thing I like to do as well is matt obviously voices xyz of the characters on each of the episodes, so I like to try and pick out his voice as they sort of go through um as well. One of the the characters he actually did voice was agar, the voice of the orc which had his hand cut off in the aforementioned bar scene.
Speaker 2:Uh, so he does have quite a few roles in each of the episodes, so keep your ears up for that too they make make their way to the council, where they are currently discussing where all the mercenaries have gone, where the murder hobos have been murdered.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they go through a plethora of all the different mercenaries that have been destroyed by this unknown force as they approach the keep as well. You can see the critical roll symbol on the door of the keep to Iman with the D20 with the sword plunging on the door of the, the keep to iman with the. You know the d20 with the sword plunging through the middle of it. And then, you know, as they get there, everybody gets to pass through. They notice, the guards themselves notice that. You know, vox machina smells like absolute garbage. And then, uh, trinket gets left behind. Yeah, uh, obviously a continuing theme throughout the campaign of the, the dnd table as well. When you have a big bulky bear, obviously he's not allowed in some places. So Laura had to come up with some creative ways as to how to get him into places and how to maneuver him through situations, laura being Vex the owner of Trinket as well.
Speaker 2:And I do like how, even in this. Scanlan is not the biggest Trinket fan, I'd like to say, Because in the live show he tried to get Trinket killed on many occasions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's Trinket's biggest hater and he kind of gives off vibes like the dad that doesn't want the dog yeah, but he actually does not want the dog no he doesn't? It's very funny. It's very funny to look at and see all the different ways that he tries to mess with Vexen and Scanlan breaks, ways that he tries to mess with with vex and scanlon breaks into song as he introduces the, the cast of vox machina basically, and you know this is something that sam did quite regularly on the show.
Speaker 2:I don't know how he does it. He's very good at improv, especially improv songs, and in the live action he'd actually take popular songs or well-known songs and just make up his own lyrics to go with those songs a lot but in this he does like a more regal bubbly song to really heighten up and talk up his group.
Speaker 2:And then he gets to him like he starts talking about each of characters grog, how he's all strong, uh, pike with a faith that can heal anything, the twins, how they can throw daggers and how they can never miss and they'd kill anything, and Percy with his pepper box it'll blow your head off. And then, of course, he gets to himself at the end, where he then breaks into a rap and goes a little bit too far, too far until he's pulled up by I think it is Uriel who pulls him up by a guy and then he goes back into the finish off the song. That's one of my favorite things is Sam's. Well, when he was a bard, his songs, but also how it then turned into him doing all the sponsor ads at the start of the show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's probably like some of the best marketing you could buy on Twitch really Easy.
Speaker 1:Because, yeah, everybody's waiting to watch this show. It's watched by so many people and you know his creative brilliance just sort of takes this campaign and sings it through as either the bard scanlon would or, you know, as sam would, as the as the campaign progressed and, um, he was no longer playing scanlon. But back to the episode. Yes, we, we get the first sort of glimpse here at vex who expresses one of her rangers abilities, and it's kind of the first little indication that you know something's not quite right in this sort of scene and it's the very first sort of triggering event that shows um, shows that there's something wrong. So this is a ranger ability.
Speaker 2:Yes, so as a ranger you get a favored enemy and because of her backstory her favorite enemy is dragons. So she does not like dragons, um, so she studied them in her ranger studies sort of deal so that now she can sort of get sort of like a spidey sense of when, like she can get a sense of when the enemy's nearby or sort of like an inkling of it, and she sort of you sort of see that in the episode. You might think she's got a headache because she's so drunk, but it's actually because in that room somewhere someone has been either near. But I do like how it doesn't pinpoint, because the actual ability doesn't pinpoint, it just says there's something in that direction.
Speaker 2:You know the presence. Yeah, yeah, the presence is in that direction. You know the presence? Yeah, yeah, the presence is in that area, in that direction. So she's looking at these people and she's like, ah, something doesn't feel right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they really set the um the scene, as sir finn's being the one who is drawing that ire. But you know, as we watch on, obviously we find out that it's uh, it's it's general krieg, who is in fact, uh, rimside. So after they're in this hall and they they take some time to convince, you know, the sovereign and the council to to give them a chance on this sort of journey, uh, they end up doing so and they take an airship all the way across to the shale steps I believe it's called and then they start their real journey to find out what is occurring and why all these people are dying. But we talked a little bit off air as well about how, on the airship, scanlan actually goes and has a little bit of a chat to, to Vex and Vax, who always seem to whisper, and that was reminiscent of Liam and Laura's character as well at the table of Critical Role, where they'd always try to sort of whisper and have little private conversations.
Speaker 2:Scanlan walks up and pretty much just says why are you guys whispering? We can all hear you, and I've sort of a nod as at usually they're around the table and they can't really whisper to each other because they're right next to each other on the table and everyone can hear them. So I thought that was a pretty, um, pretty nice little nod to the fact that, yeah, it still makes it seem like they're all just sitting around the table playing a game yeah, no, I like that too.
Speaker 1:and then you know they land and they start to go on their trek and we see uh keyleth, you know, talking to the plants in the village as we go through, which is another dnd spell which she commonly does as well, because she's very awkward with people.
Speaker 1:And then we see vax interact with this kid and this is one of my sort of favorite moments because I kind of reminds me of of how how vax or liam's character would would go and interact with the character of Kynan later on in campaign one, which is the small boy who tried to join Vox Machina in the Twitch campaign.
Speaker 1:In the cartoon here in the Legend of Vox Machina it's obviously a different boy, but he kind of gives that kid a silver coin and he says you know this is going to help you fight monsters and I love this part because you know silver is such a very big vulnerability for lots of monsters in the D&D player's handbook and that was like a little nod to that sort of thing as well. You know he's trying to keep these people safe. So it's a nod to both the Twitch campaign and the D&D lore, which was awesome to see. And you know they go on through this sort of moment as they're making their way through the village and they still haven't really found that uniting factor that sort of brings them all together. And then, as they venture off after this, they sort of get to that moment where they realize, you know, we actually have to do this together.
Speaker 2:I will just say too the father, the father of the children. He was voiced by Matt as well, that's another, matt yep. Another Matt, and the girl and boy were actually Sam and Liam's daughter and son, my gosh.
Speaker 1:that makes it so much worse as to what happens later on in the episode. We start to see, as they exit this village as well, a little bit of a romance sort of developing between Vax and Keyleth's character. That's an ongoing theme through Campaign 1 as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So you see that with actually a lot of the characters too, but in the actual live action it did take a lot longer for them to sort of connect. But I think because of the fact that the show has to be so squashed. In a way they had to sort of they sort of had to like bring it forward. So, because they don't actually restart, get together until I think it's roughly around when keyless decides that she wants to be a golden god and jumps off a cliff and dies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, that kind of brings it to it, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:it's like a hundred or so, maybe even more, a hundred or so episodes in but yeah, they definitely fast track it and they lay the pebbles for that early on in this sort of early they're doing for a lot of them, which I think which is good because, like um, real, because realistically they didn't know how many seasons they were going to get Exactly they didn't know how many episodes they were going to get, because they initially appealed for a 20-minute or a 40-minute special or something like that, which would have been these first two episodes, not knowing what was to come, obviously.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I agree, I think they had to really sort of squash all the little things in that they could. But, that being said, it really sort of didn't feel rushed, as you know, as as it could have, knowing how much content they could be, you know, and if you're coming in blind to this and you don't know the critical role, uh twitch show, it really just flows like a regular sort of cartoon yeah, and I think that's hats off to um, like the whole entire cast, because they all came in and they all, and especially Matt in that, like going through the story, saying, alright, yes, we can keep this, no, we can cut that, we can keep this, we can cut that.
Speaker 2:And I reckon, like for them, I reckon it would be so hard for them to cut certain things absolutely like, if they could, they'd do a whole 400 hours content as they really could. But yeah was content as they really could.
Speaker 1:But yeah, unfortunately that's gonna be a lot of money and, yeah, a lot of episodes, time too, yeah yeah, but then we we sort of get a few more dnd sort of references through this area where they're sort of tracking through the forest and obviously exploration is one of the three key pillars of any dungeons and dragons game and the ranger really shines through in these moments as well, and we see vex leading the party through the terrain and she's doing the tracking, which is an indication that she's made a survival check, which is when you roll your d20 and you check it against your survival skill. She then senses her dragon again during, uh, using her sort of primeval awareness and using her favorite enemy as well. And then you know, you get that classic scene in all monster movies where that massive foot just smashes something and leaving it in a bloody mess and battle ensues. Or, as you say, in dungeons and dragons, roll initiative and during the fight scenes.
Speaker 1:I think is where we see most of the dnd mechanics come into play and I think they do a really good job of portraying them, but not rigidly sticking to them, obviously, because we all know that sometimes dungeons and dragons combat can get a little bit clunky. So we do get things. Like you know, vax always throws his three daggers, which is his catchphrase. He always throws three daggers and he says dagger, dagger, dagger every time, and then you know they're fighting the the blue dragon as well, I believe one of the abilities for a dragon is its frightful presence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think, from how it seemed, keyleth might have failed her, I'm assuming a wisdom check, wisdom check, yeah, and got too scared to do anything. So she's been very much with the whole flight, just squatted down, just terrified yeah, which is, you know, one of the abilities of the dragon.
Speaker 1:You know, to keep everybody frightened, which is a condition you can have where you literally can't do anything. You can't move closer to the, to the creature. Everything you do is with disadvantage.
Speaker 2:You're absolutely stuffed yeah, and so the only thing you can do is move away from the target you're fearful of. If you want to move anyway, he does his lightning breath, which he uses. Usually he'd use lightning breath, and then you have to roll a d6 and hopefully get it back.
Speaker 2:If not, he was getting them back quite often he was, I was, and just with his claws, tactoon bites, everything like that. But you see, grog, he gets taken out almost immediately, which is, I believe, actually what happened in the live game. They were saying he actually didn't get taken out almost immediately. He ran in that, he charged in their full force but taken out absolutely immediately. And that's where I think sam's character. He was like, oh great, grog's down already and then he goes behind a um, a log um, and you see pike again using her shield of faith to guard her and scanlon from the uh lightning breath. But uh, yeah, definitely a um, definitely a strong foe to be them, to be facing. I think they were only roughly like maybe level eight. Yeah, I think at the time there's definitely a, definitely a um, tough on the wind, and yeah, yeah, I think the most interesting part for that one for me.
Speaker 1:Obviously you mentioned the lightning breath and we were talking um vulnerabilities and immunities before as well. But blue dragons are traditionally lightning users and therefore when you use lightning against them, sometimes that lightning doesn't really do much to that dragon. And that's also reminiscent of that D&D mechanic as well that they've inserted into the show without explicitly sort of saying you know they're immune, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, yeah, after they're almost TPK, Keyleth manages to save them by building a bind dome.
Speaker 2:I don't know if that's a natural spell, but she does it and ends up saving them. One thing I did notice is you'll see, when Brimside looks into the rubble, you'll see a hand, and that's the hand of the orc. They cut off, they cut off, yeah, off in the bar fight. But another thing is you're always, especially in season one and some, and actually probably in all seasons, really all campaigns they always have body parts, yeah in their bag of holding. They always have body parts in their bag of holding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this will come up again when we talk about episode two, I'm sure because there's an easter egg about that. But yeah, you're absolutely right, they always have.
Speaker 1:So like, yeah, you see the hand there like this discovered hand, and he's like, oh cool, I've killed him and he flies off and obviously would have kept that yeah oh, come back down again and yeah he's yeah, he's obviously after the battle and grogs more damage than everybody else, and I like to believe that this is sort of a call back to how goliaths can take extra damage when they rage, obviously taking half damage from any sort of physical sort of attack. But he's sort of standing there, obviously bleeding out, and then pike uses that cure wounds spell which really goes and bites them later on when they exhibit one of the most important rules for spell casters in dungeons and dragons and they show it in episode one of the legend of vox machina and they wander off and head back towards the village where they see that Brinsyth not only messed them up but also went back and doubled back and destroyed the little village that they were visiting the Shale's steps is now demolished.
Speaker 2:Yep, and straight away Vex runs off ahead of the group, which he actually did a lot in line action too he always run off into heaps of trouble yeah, um, but he runs off.
Speaker 1:That's rule. That's rule number one of dnd, isn't it?
Speaker 2:you'd never go off alone don't split the party he runs off to the house where the kids lives to see if they had made it and unfortunately the father, the mother and the daughter were crisp on the floor.
Speaker 1:That's a good way to put it.
Speaker 2:Of the little hut and the rest join and it's a bit somber. And then they hear a coughing in the cupboard and Vex and Grog move a beam out of the way and pull out the little boy who is barely hanging on. Pike goes to heal him and unfortunately she has run out of spell slots and therefore cannot heal him. As she stated earlier that the healing of Grog really took it out of her, and then that showed here where she had no energy left to heal the boy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she was too exhausted. I think that's a really good way to uh express the fact that you're out of spell slots when you're in a role play moment as well, and they do it really well in their show. You know I'm too exhausted to do this right now or there's nothing I can do. My energy's not working that kind of thing. Because yeah, uh, that's one of the biggest problems that spell casters have is that resource management of their spells is probably one of the more exciting things about being a spellcaster, as well as like strategically using those slots to do what you need to do.
Speaker 1:And obviously you know there are things that happen in the dungeons and dragons campaign that you can't foresee, and sometimes it gets to the point where you know you've made one choice to save your party member being grog, but on the other hand, you do lose that sort of that innocent uh member of the community of the shale steps as a as a consequence. So that sort of give and take is really common in the critical role campaigns as well, because matt's really really good at sort of offering these guys and the players some some moments to sort of cherish and some moments where they can use their abilities really well, but then, on the other hand, he really presents them with some really tough choices, on occasion too yeah, and I do like it because whenever those moments happen, it's always tough on Matt as well.
Speaker 2:That's another reason why I believe he's such a good DM, because, even though he will completely wipe out the party, he doesn't take joy in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he doesn't sit out too as well, which I think is a status quo. That I think gets a little bit muddled at some D&D tables as well, because there's one person that's sitting behind the screen and throwing all these monsters at you. Sometimes it feels like your D&D party is against that guy, but everybody that plays Dungeons Dragons has to remember that that guy, the DM, has put a lot of work into this game and really they just want to see you guys have fun and, as a result, you know they can have some fun too, because we're all there playing a game.
Speaker 2:but yeah, I do think that matters as well yeah, exactly yeah, um, so, yeah. So there are a whole lot of heartbreaking moments in kooka roll, which is always good to see, and a lot of them, a lot of them even matt doesn't even do this the actual characters, because the players themselves do it to themselves yeah, which I completely invested too.
Speaker 1:It's great.
Speaker 2:That's the thing, and they sort of create their own sort of little dramas inside of Matt's world and Matt's just sitting there going yes, this is it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the best moments of Critical Role that I've watched is the times when Matt has been silent for like 25 to 30 minutes and the players are either going off on their own or talking with one another or doing character dialogue or going through an arc and you know, that sort of character-driven game is really, really great. Yeah, all right, we'll move on to episode two, because the credits close there and we open to the second episode, which is obviously called the Terror of Tal'Dorei, part Two, and we open up to General Krieg addressing his men, and this is where the amazing Felicia Day guest stars as a captain and you know he says something along the lines of a storm is coming tonight and that's really sort of ironic, considering you know he is the storm that is going to be coming.
Speaker 1:Greatest moments in this episode early on is when they're readdressing the Council of Tal'Dorei and they go in and they say the enemy is nothing more than a blue dragon and they're like we know. And then, you know, they go outside and they end up talking about who said what and they're flinging all these names around and Grog in the end is just like I didn't get anybody's name. I think that's a really common D&D player trope as well, and you know for DMs as well, but for players especially, you know there's so many times you're around the table and you're just like you know that guy, the one with the scars, and nobody ever knows the character's actual name. So that's a really common thing that they threw in there for the players as well. That I loved. That was really great early on in the episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then they, because they've invested, now with the death of the child, they're all motivated to be like no, we're going to kill this dragon, even if it kills us. And they're seemingly being dismissed by the council. So they're like screw it, we'll do it ourselves. So they split up one group, which generally you should never really do, split the party. But they split the party In three. Yeah, they split Vax and Pike to go to see Gilmore, while Scanlan and Grog go off to.
Speaker 1:We'll talk about scanlon and grog's little escapade first, and then we'll jump into the gilmore shop because I think there's a little bit to dissect there. There is a bit, yeah. So when we're talking about, uh, grog and scanlon, that's a pairing that happens all the time in the critical role, twitch, uh broadcast, and it's usually, for you know, comical or funny sort of results. I know that when, when they're doing the team-ups and you hear them sort of divvying at the missions and they say Grog and Scanlan, you go and do this and you just see Sam and Travis just look at each other, grin and you're like, okay, shit's happening here.
Speaker 2:The boys are together. Yeah, and you know, as it showed in the show, very, very quickly they always kind of get up to no good and then the rest of it happens yeah they end up just sitting down in the middle of square, pretty much giving up on finding him at all, and instead sken's like do you know where he's gonna be?
Speaker 2:he's gonna be at a brothel, yeah very common for those two to go and seek out the ladies of the night and I like how, also that this again shows, uh, this sort of hate relationship that vex and scanlon have towards sort of each other. Because grog's like, oh, no, um, uh, vex will get it, uh, get up us if we don't do what she says, blah, blah. And scanlon's like, oh, no, no, it's fine, I'm the brains of this group anyway, yeah. And then, um, grog's like, oh, but vex said you had dicks for brains. Oh, I don't know how, it's fine, I'm the brains of this group anyway. And then Grog's like, oh, but Vex said you had Dixville brains.
Speaker 2:I don't know how it's possible it seems impossible to me so you can see the sort of hate relationship between Scarlet and Vex in that moment too but, in that moment they happen to spot the thing that is.
Speaker 1:Cripple spotless in the crypt board. Yeah, I really like that part too, because I think in that scene it actually showed another really awesome D&D mechanic as well, which is the stealth check. Okay, and sometimes the stealth checks in the Critical Role campaign were absolutely ridiculous because you know Matt would say where are you hiding? They'd describe their hide and it would be as ridiculous as I'm drinking.
Speaker 1:Or you know, as they had to make a second one because they've they've made the noise, it would be as as ridiculous as I will roll behind a carton or a or a pile of crates and hope not to be seen.
Speaker 1:And you know that that that timing of that animation is really really great addition as a dnd mechanic in the show as well and they must have passed the stealth check the whole way, following him too, because they ended up following him to a mansion yep, and spying with uh scanlon on grog's shoulders and the perception check that they must have done to see you know that he had the knife and he he looked through and he walked through the door must have failed. The perception check that they must have done to see you know that he had the knife and he looked through and he walked through the door Must have failed the perception check, though, when he actually went and bumped his head on the sign as they went past as well. But perception checks are a very common sort of staple of D&D also.
Speaker 2:But then he must have failed his perception check when he didn't notice them, when he yelled out fuck after hitting his head yeah that's true, that is true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sometimes you hitting his head yeah, that's true, that is true. Yeah, sometimes you don't think of it in terms of the antagonists of a show, but, yeah, obviously, in a dungeons and dragons game, all of the things that those characters are doing are rolled for as well. So, yeah, he would have failed his perception check to see them, which is which is awesome to see, you know, that sort of playing out on the cartoon screen. Let's jump back now to gilmore's glorious goods, a fan favorite character and probably matt merce's favorite np, at least of campaign one.
Speaker 1:We meet Gilmore for the first time, who is a very verbose sort of character.
Speaker 1:He's very flirtatious as well, he's in your face, he's extremely powerful and magical and he has lots of secrets to share. Obviously, as they walk into this magic filled shop, we can already see that Vax and Gilmore have a little bit of history. I thought this was really well done and really well sort of told through the fact that, after some conversing, you actually saw Gilmore have a little bit of history. I thought this was really well done and really well sort of told through the fact that, after some conversing, you actually saw Gilmore do the coin trick that Vax was doing in the episode earlier with the coin across his knuckles, showing that, you know, they've either taught each other that or they learned it together, or it's something that they have in common at the very least. And that sort of connection to the character sort of subconsciously joins you with that pair, and sort of connection to the character sort of subconsciously joins you with that pair. And there was, you know, some chemistry in the uh the twitch campaign between those two characters as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um and I do actually highly recommend and they're pretty, they're reasonably priced. Um, if anyone's interested in reading the comics, the um critic roll has the comics out. That shows what happened, like how they all met that's so good yeah yeah, so I've got, I've got them all and I've read through them all.
Speaker 1:Um, and yeah, they're really, they're really good and um we'll put those comics in the in the show notes below, at least the names of them, so people can go and look them up if they want seen the campaign too yeah. Easter eggs, easter eggs, this is coming early.
Speaker 2:So when Pike's gone through, she'll see there's like a little red ferret in the background there. Which sort of hints towards Jester's, what's it called? It's called like an ember ferret Companion. Yeah, a red weasel. Red weasel, yeah, yeah, um, her red weasel, um, what was his name, ends up being Artagan. Yeah, yeah, um, but they always joke about how it was. It was always.
Speaker 2:It's been dead the whole entire time yeah, yeah, because of the amount of damage and because it's always around her neck, it would take damage like in explosions and shit like it should have been dead like 25 times over yeah but then Pike goes past in a book. He's operating all these items in the store and he operates a book called Tusk Love, which is another, which is a book that Jester has in Campaign 2 that she reads. It's about a tiefling woman and a half-orc man.
Speaker 1:And very familiar from Jester and Ford who are the characters of Laura and Travis in Campaign 2. That sort of fictional book is like the cornerstone of their love story in that campaign and it features here in the episode of Lock, smuck and Up.
Speaker 2:It's a bit of a smutty book. Yes, so that was really good. Now, one thing I've been trying to find out because it's there and I want to know if it actually is something, but I haven't been able to find anything else on it. I can't remember. There's so many episodes.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to remember, but there's like just that sandal that's in a jar. Yes, they, they focused in on that sandal specifically. I can't see anything about it either. So if you're listening to this and you're a community member and you know of critical role, definitely hit us up on our socials. Dm me, because, yeah, we want to know what that sandal is all about, because I think it is something as well, maybe it's something coming in the future.
Speaker 2:Not too sure, I'm not sure. I'm sure it's got to do with something that they couldn't fit into the show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to put that out into the community. I'll put a question on threads for everybody to have a look at that one.
Speaker 2:In the story. Like you see, armor tomes potions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all the accoutrements of various different sort of anything you could open up and see in the player's handbook in the item shopping section is definitely in gilmore's glorious goods. One thing that I found that was really cool was there's obviously the triceratops skull there and that's a key moment in campaign one where scanlan was running across the roofs of whitestone, transformed into the triceratops and absolutely annihilated some of the guards across that area. Very important and awesome moment for him. I don't know if it's there as like a nod or foreshadowing to that moment, or if it's just coincidence.
Speaker 2:I think it's good to have a nod, because they couldn't put that part in, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so I think that was really great. Underneath that as well, there's the flying broom, which I think is in reference to Vex's flying broom. That occurs later on in the season that she gets from Garmili. And going back to what you were saying about the red weasel, eventually we know that weasel becomes Artagan in campaign two, which is Jester's patron, who is Laura's character. But there's also a red weasel in the first episode of Vox Machina as well, when Scanlan's singing his song and he's describing Keyleth's character, when she he talks about how you know, she's a master of the wild and the animals and the elements.
Speaker 1:There's a weasel on the tree in the background as well. So I'm wondering if that sort of Artagan Running through the forest, running through the forest yeah, if that sort of Artagan element is just like a you know spot mat is it a spot? The red weasel kind of thing, as the episodes go through and then we come to after they leave, obviously, they ask, they ask Gilmore all the information for the dragons, looking for vulnerabilities and immunities, which is an important part of D&D as well Offers them the dragon lance of slaying, which is way beyond their price point too, and he gives them some lore background which sort of helps them out as well. But then they get to a door and as the party reunites they obviously go and try to find where Fist went. And they get to a door which is a criticalle and Vox Machina's greatest adversary.
Speaker 2:In every campaign they seem to have some sort of trouble with some sort of inanimate object. So campaign was doors, campaign two was chairs. It's just yeah, it's just been an ongoing thing of days have trouble with some sort of inanimate object at some point and, yeah, doors are a major one for them. They had a lot of trouble getting through a lot of doors and sometimes we're just even defeated by the doors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think sam actually took damage from a door at one point yeah, oh, yeah, no, yeah, because I think someone, I think grog, tried to throw him through the door or something. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, right, yeah, but yeah. So Scanlan first tries to unlock the door. I believe he tried to. He probably would have used like knock or something, maybe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or bardic inspiration or something like that. I thought knock as well, but knock usually opens it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it would automatically, but because usually he would use his big bees or his Scanlan's hands to pick locks. Yeah, yeah, that's what he usually did in the live action. He used the big hands because that way he could stay at a distance, so if it was trapped it wouldn't hurt him because he's using the hand. And then Keyleth goes ahead and tries to heat the metal to try and melt the. She really did use a lot as well, heal us. She used heat metal a lot, which then ends up burning Scanlan's fine silk shirt. They have a little bit of argument and then it pushes back to Pike, who's trying to see if the door's magic by using detect magic, yeah, or an arcana check of some kind, or arcana checks yeah.
Speaker 1:You just see her come out with just like that random information just from touching her temple and you're just like, okay, that was a roll and a check that the player character knows and is trying to role play in the scene.
Speaker 2:Yeah and just yeah. They all fail miserably. And then vex saves the day by being the rogue he is. He, uh, grabs the toothpick out of grog sandwich that grog's very upset about, and then picks lock with this toothpick, manages to get through. It calls them all amateurs and that all they need is a bit of finesse, and then walks through the door.
Speaker 1:Exactly, which is a completely rogue trait as well, vax being the rogue of the group. They get access to thieves' tools. They're proficient in those as well, and they can also get an ability called Expertise, which doubles their proficiency in it as well. So they're very good at opening locks and doors and any other skill. They're really called skill monkeys, aren't they? Adam?
Speaker 2:They're kind of yeah, not spell users, but skill monkeys. Playing either a rogue or a bard can get you very highly skilled in various things. Whereas other people want to work for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a different way to strategize through a situation where a lot of spell casters would try to say what spell do I use in this situation, whereas a rogue or a bard might use, um, their brain in a different way. Yeah, abilities. They then go into this, this manor, and they're looking for various different ways in to find where think of vince went and obviously this is perception checks, again using the dnd vernacular. And you know backs, once again, probably through looking for traps, which is another great sort of rogue ability he was able to find. You know Vax, once again, probably through looking for traps, which is another great sort of rogue ability he was able to find.
Speaker 1:You know the hidden doorway and also I think you get that as a background ability as well for being a urchin, where you know the various different sort of ways through the city and things like that, or you know secret passages and things like that. But either way, vax ends up finding that cellar door and they end up going all the way down until they finally find Finst, who they are revealed to be the instigator or the person who gives Vex the headaches, but it does in fact end up being General Krieg. Now Vax also makes a comment during this time. It was just like oh, that was a really great technique that you used there. I didn't hear a thing, because General Krieg is obviously wearing heavy armour and in D&D heavy armour makes you roll with disadvantage, so obviously would have passed that and stabbed through and I like how they, how they made him, like he turned around and he started pleading.
Speaker 2:He's like no, no other council member who's like started clicking on to the fact that yeah, um, so he might have had like, um, uh, insight, like you might have done the insight yeah, high insight yeah high insight on getting was like hang on, something's not not right here.
Speaker 2:And then and like, especially probably, like it's probably after like you're saying how all these troops were wiped out and only him and a couple of others managed to survive, and he's like, yeah, but they probably came back all battered and bruised and you were like, perfectly fine, that's a bit weird. Yeah, and probably did the insight and was like there's something fishy going on here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because Vince was definitely probably one of the more intelligent members of the council of Tal'Dorei as well.
Speaker 1:But you know, obviously Krieg runs away and they follow through and they get into this sort of area, this den, you might say. That's full of various different knickknacks and lots of different sort of symbology here as well. That's D&D reminiscent. So we had Gilmore's Glorious Goods and now we have this sort of area here five dragons, which is a foreshadowing moment for season two, but also for the upcoming campaign in the, in the live twitch stream where they actually versed against the chroma conclave, which is the five sort of colored dragons which ended up going through to to wipe out all of uh teldore with brim sight, the blue dragon being one of the members of the chroma conclave and that being their symbol, which was on the floor, so sharp-eyed fans would have obviously noticed that as part of the uh canon yeah, I really thought, because part goes in there and uses must at that point used um detect magic, because everything, yeah, um pinging yeah, detect magic spell I do like that.
Speaker 2:I wish they had a like just sort of panned over maybe a couple of the magic items, just to show off a few of the magic items, but unfortunately they didn't really do it, just did a quick pan and that was it. Yeah, so then, uh, obviously it's time to venture through the mystical booty portrait portal which is a total dnd thing as well.
Speaker 1:You know naming things in silly ways. There is a massive booty on the portrait and everybody needs to walk through it. There would have been some laughs around the table, like that but that's the thing, too, with dragons as well.
Speaker 2:Their lairs are usually um away from where they usually set up. If they're being human, they'll stop somewhere, they'll have a portal or something that takes them to their actual lair.
Speaker 1:That's another big trope for um, for dnd lore, yeah, and when they went into the keep as well and they started to venture further down, they actually found the horde, which is another big piece of dnd dragons. Obviously, the Horde is something that's really sort of popularized and it's usually gold or trinkets or various different magical items, but I think it's especially prevalent, and correct me if I'm wrong, but for blue dragons they absolutely love gold, more so than any other sort of chromatic color. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:That is correct. Yeah, blue is very gold hungry, whereas red's more enslaving and aggressive aggressive and just angry. Green is like the more nomadic nomadic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're kind of violent, seductive too yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're more of the in the shadows keep to themselves. They don't have a big horde, but they just like to keep to themselves and just do like slotting, and then you got black dragons, who are just gross.
Speaker 1:Yeah, swamps, black dragons are swamp dwelling and shit, and yeah they're vile, yeah, and then the white dragons are more primal, aren't they?
Speaker 1:they're more animalistic and they love to hunt and they like to toy with their prey and that kind of thing. So there's definitely different abilities for all different dragons, but they pursued the blue one here, obviously because that's rim side and they really showed that they love the, the, the gold aspect of that sort of dragon horde as well. So if you know you play your monster manual and you know your your blue chromatic dragons, then that would have ticked the box for you there. And then amongst that horde we obviously find another dismembered piece of of body which is comes up a lot for some reason. I I don't know why. Where did the troll dick come from?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure. I believe that they did just. I think it was Sam. It was Sam who came up with it, and I think it was just a thing.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I think because they did find some trolls and I do have a feeling that they may have taken it off of a troll, but they did have a troll deck for a while, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think that's just funny.
Speaker 2:And that was also just kept in the bag of holding like the other body parts that they kept.
Speaker 1:Tell you what, though, this reminds me as a dungeon master, and you being one yourself as well the search history of a dungeon master is akin to just the worst kind of stuff, because the amount of things that you have to look up or learn about just to find that tiny piece of information because you know your players are going to ask for it, so you know the things you'd look up are just crazy. Like, uh, how to navigate at sea was another thing that I looked up, which I may not ever use in my life, but I know how to do it because I played dungeons and dragons. It's just crazy, like rabbit holes that you go down when you're playing dnd, and like I feel like troll dick was just one of them.
Speaker 2:They were just like this is going to happen. The anatomy of many, many different creatures. Yeah, exactly, it's like you know they want to harvest whatever they can off these creatures.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a big thing.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you can get paws, teeth scales yeah, how much are they worth? What can you create out of them?
Speaker 1:That kind of thing. It just goes down a rabbit hole. But they actually do nod to that here in the second episode of Vox Machina, when Grog goes and snaps off the tooth after they eventually defeat Brimsythe. But before we jump to that, let's talk about the actual conflict with that dragon, because they obviously find him. General Krieg is revealed to be the dragon, and then the combat in Shu's initiative is rolled again and they basically get the floor wiped with them once more and they realize that they have to work together as a team, which is key in Dungeons and Dragons.
Speaker 2:as a player, vex is the one that beforehand, before even working with the supporters, was like, hey, before we go in there, we should probably do this as a team. And then they're like, nah, fuck it, let's do it. We always do it. We just fuck shit up. Vex comes up with the weak spot being in the other neck, yeah, because it looks like the Twin Rivers, which is the information they got from that poem, that they got from the book from Gilmore.
Speaker 1:Exactly the quest coming to a close in the final act.
Speaker 2:Exactly so, all the information coming together, they're using it to beat the final big bad sort of one-shot sort of trope, because it is sort of like a one-shot sort of adventure.
Speaker 1:these first sort of two episodes, exactly the first two episodes is just like a one-shot, which is, you know, for anybody that doesn't know the terminology, a one-shot is a small adventure that you usually do with a set of characters. That lasts for one session or two sessions and then it's done. It doesn't really go on to a larger campaign, which is what these first two episodes feel like, because after these episodes obviously it goes into the Briarwood arc. But during that combat as well, I saw and noticed Percy's action surge. You know he went through, he shot twice, reloaded and shot again. Yep. I also saw, you know, vax doing his thing, obviously using some sort of dodging, which is part of the rogue trope as well Uncanny dodge or evasion, as he's dodging through the rocks, which is a D&D character trope, and Scanlan using his hand, once more as well. And there was something going on with Pyke and Vex, I wasn't sure, like she did something to his arrow, her arrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that would be a holy weapon, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it makes it do radiant damage as well, and then you know, Travis Willingham has coined one of the greatest phrases ever for a barbarian and it comes out in this episode. Yeah, episode, yeah. So famously now, uh, with barbarians, whenever you tell the dm you want to rage, travis first started saying this and now, like even I say it every now and then when I play a barbarian, he always coined the term that whenever he was to rage, he would say I would love um, I would like to rage um in the politest way possible in the politest way possible In the politest way.
Speaker 2:So in the animation, of course, they had to add it in. So when Vex is like to Grog, he's nice and low. Now Grog sets himself, he digs his heels in and he yells out. I would like to rage as he starts tearing off towards Brinsythe as they both collide towards each other. Unfortunately for Brinsythe, grog's just that much better and absolutely just splits his head in two with his axe.
Speaker 1:That was the how do you want to do this? Moment, which Matt is famous for as well. And, for those that don't know, during the live shows or during the Twitch campaigns, whenever somebody would get the final hit on a creature, matt would say how do you want to do this? And the characters themselves would describe what their characters do, and it's usually the gnarliest shit that they can think of. And that is reminiscent here in the in the last sort of scene of episode two of vox machina, where that dragon head is completely in half, you know, from from eyebrow to nose, just absolutely split yeah, dead crog as usual, just covered in blood yep, and I loved as well even the small touch afterwards where he turned around and he was completely exhausted, because, you know, after after you rage as a barbarian, you do suffer those points of exhaustion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, go back to iman. They are granted protectors of the realm and given the keys to the keep, which, uh, in the twitch show they call gray skull keep, but obviously for copyright reasons they can't copy he-man, so they just call it they Keep, and we're introduced to the new Big Bad in an almost after-credits sequence kind of thing in the Lady and Lord Briarwood, and that is sort of everything that happened in Episode 1 and 2 and all of the different sort of Easter eggs that you can expect, all of the different Dungeons Dragons mechanics that were present within it as well. Thanks so much for joining me on this, adam. It's been a really great conversation and awesome to talk about D&D with you. You know we both have a big past in Dungeons Dragons and I love talking about it wherever I can. So thanks for joining me, of course. No, no, I love it Anytime, anytime at all.
Speaker 1:And if you love what you are hearing about Vox Machina, then there are many places that you can seek D&D content related to it, the first of which is obviously YouTube. You can look up the Critical Role Gang. I have three campaigns going now, over a thousand hours of gameplay of Dungeons Dragons that you can just Google and see. You can also throw us a bone at the D&D Valiant Odyssey podcast and you can go and see some of our narrative roleplay Dungeons Dragons podcast if that was something that you're into. The comics and the names of those Vox Machina comments will be in the show notes below. There's obviously also third season that has just come out for the Legend of Vox Machina. That premiered on the 3rd or the 4th of October, depending on where you are in the world, and I encourage you to watch that as well.
Speaker 1:I've been Aaron, that's been Adam. That's it for this week's episode of the Fandom Portals podcast. We want to thank you guys for tuning in and this has been a very special episode in the month of October as we are celebrating animation celebration. On the 28th of October it is International Animation Day and this is the first annual celebration for the Fandom Portals podcast, so we want to thank you for being a part of it. We have some very special episodes coming for you for the rest of the month, all featuring animation content. So stick around for those.
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Speaker 1:If you've been with Fandom Portals for a while, you'll know that all of our content is community generated. That means that the community has a say in what we discuss each week on our podcast, and if you want to get involved in that, make sure you check out the show notes below and subscribe to our social medias. We're most active on Instagram and threads, and you can have a direct conversation with me, the host of Fandom Portals, and you may find yourself being shouted out in one of our episodes in the future. Not only that, but you'll also find a really great community to connect with on all of the fandoms that you love. That is, after all, the goal of this podcast. Yes, we like to talk and educate everybody on the fandoms that you are loving, but we also like to create that safe space for you to come and connect with and share the very things that you love and enjoy. So that's all from me, aaron, at the Fandom Portals podcast for this week, and, as always, we'll connect with respect and I will catch you later.
