Vox Machina recaps and reviews, season 2: Episodes 7-9
Another Friday, three more The Legend of Vox Machina episodes to enjoy! As we cross the midpoint of this season’s journey, the plot thickens and things happen!
BEWAR SPOILERS FOR VOX MACHINA SEASON 2 BELOW!
Last time, on D&D…We were left panicking as we witnessed a hypnotized and Dragonblood-thirsty Grog impale Pike with a starving Craven’s Edge. Keyleth opened a portal to the nest vestige to get them all out of there. It’s all fine and dandy until Umbrasyl disrupts Keyleth’s spell, causing the party to split up.
Keyleth, Vex’ahlia, Vax’ildan, and Percy find themselves in a foreign realm while Grog, Pike, and Scanlan find themselves somewhere else.
Time to discuss.
Vox Machina Episode 7: “The Fey Realm”
As a D&D player, I get equal parts excited and terrified every time I find my character in the Fey Realm. Yes, it’s gorgeous and has the most magical creatures and plants, but everything has the potential to try and kill you. Especially the prettier things. It was really cool actually seeing the Fey Realm on Vox Machina. To my surprise, it was very close to how I’ve always imagined it, dangers included. That alone made me very happy with the episode.
Vax not being able to go through the Fey Realm without being attacked really makes you raise an eyebrow and wonder just what kind of… deal… Vax is getting himself into by pledging his life to the Raven Queen. It was a rushed, impulsive decision made to try and save Vex from dying, and though everything kind of seems fine for now, we can only guess the tremendous cost of this exchange. The Deathwalker’s Ward definitely seems to attract fiends due to its connection to the Raven Queen.
Meanwhile, our boy Grog makes the tough decision to break Craven’s Edge and rid himself of this evil energy. Because of that, he becomes emaciated and incredibly weak, with much less muscle mass. Pike and Scanlan try to take care of Grog, although it’s remarkably hard for two gnomes to carry a Goliath around.
I really like the fact the show took this direction. In the Critical Role campaign, Grog does not break Craven’s Edge and the party doesn’t get split up and they visit all these places together. By splitting the party, it allows for the plot to be condensed into 12 30-minute episodes per season. It also helps the viewer focus on the characters and their arcs for that particular scenario. By allowing us to see Grog breaking Craven’s Edge (instead of having Pike sever his connection to it with a Greater Restoration spell and then Keyleth yeet it into another plane of existence), it shows just how much Grog’s bond with Pike means to him. And then we get tiny but still tall Grog!
I am also very happy to see Garmelie the satyr make an appearance, and I absolutely cackled at his lewd drawings of our beloved party members.
The episode ends with Vax and Vex looking out in horror to that see their father’s town, Syngorn, has been moved into the Fey Realm.