The Legend of Vox Machina Cast Unpacks Season 3’s Harrowing Turn, Adaptational Changes, and That Bittersweet Finale

After just four short weeks, Prime Video and Critical Role’s third season of The Legend of Vox Machina has come to an end. This outing featured an excursion to Hell, a major character death, and a bittersweet ending to a deeply harrowing but admirably hopeful journey for the titular Vox Machina. 

In the aftermath of the defeat of the Chroma Conclave (a bloodthirsty and terrifying group of dragons hell-bent on conquering Exandria), Vox Machina still has work to do. In the season’s final episode, Vex (Laura Bailey), Vax (Liam O’Brien), Pike (Ashley Johnson), Keyleth (Marisha Ray), Grog (Travis Willingham), and Scanlan (Sam Riegel) band together to revive Percy (Taliesin Jaffe) following his death in Episode 7. And when their friend is finally brought back to them, Vox Machina each head their separate ways. Keyleth brings Vax along with her as she aims to start her long-awaited trial in Air Ashari tradition; Vex and Percy stay in Whitestone to manage the rebuilding efforts and nurse him back to health; Scanlan ventures out with his daughter Kaylie (Aisling Franciosi) to make up for lost time; Grog and Pike pair off for their own adventures. But, of course, danger looms just on the horizon, as the season’s final scene spells misfortune for all of Exandria. 

When asked why it was important for the season to end with Vox Machina getting a taste of their happy ending (before teasing more darkness on the horizon), O’Brien tells Paste, “We just want our babies to be happy. They work real hard for it this season—real, real hard. They deserve a spa weekend.” 

“The challenges they’re facing are mind-blowing, but also what these characters and what the stories that we’ve told are so well-known for is the heart, the love, the humor, and the ability to break it down into small moments as well,” Willingham explains. “The dichotomy between something that could have an effect on the entire continent of Tal’Dorei and then also the relationship between just two characters and how that’s changing—I think that’s what’s most special and most fun for us.” 

“You want to leave audiences with a feeling of hope for the future and imagine the adventures to come, but also have that promise of conflict remain on the outskirts. To button it up and end it would definitely feel like a full end, but in the chances that we get to explore this story further, we want the audience to be excited about what’s coming next. But even if it doesn’t, leave them wondering what challenges might be in their future,” Mercer notes. 

“And I think we know what we’re putting the audience through, too, this season,” Johnson adds. “We gotta give them a little bit of happiness, maybe. I don’t know if happiness is the word—a little relief!” 

And when Johnson mentions putting the audience through the wringer, she isn’t kidding. From shocking deaths to heart-wrenching break ups and everything in between, The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 doesn’t go easy on anyone—audiences and characters alike. 

In the season’s second batch of episodes, Pike, Scanlan, Grog, Keyleth, and Vax all head to Hell to obtain a powerful piece of armor they’ll need in the battle with the Conclave. But Pike, being a devout champion of the Everlight, struggles greatly with her faith when confronted with the worst of humanity and theology within its fiery depths. “For Pike and her journey with the Everlight, in some ways it’s hard to watch,” Johnson says. “It’s almost like she has more faith in the Everlight than she has in herself. It’s this weird realization that she has to come to believe in herself, and I think putting her in a position of having to go to Hell and have the absence of the Everlight [allowed her] to have a lot of [those] realizations.” 

In Episode 9, Keyleth’s apprehensions with their dragon double agent come to a head, as Raishan (Cree Summer) betrays them immediately after they defeat Thordak. By Episode 10, Vox Machina are headed their separate ways in anger. Ray echoes Johnon’s admission that these moments are difficult, but ultimately worth the anguish for both the characters and the audience. 

“There are moments even for us when watching back where [it is] hard to watch. Especially from an objective standpoint because, you know, I don’t like seeing them fight!” Ray laughs. “I think we were honestly given a gift this season with breaking everybody off. We split the party more this season than we ever have, and I think that’s really allowed us to kinda dive deeper into what makes these characters tick.”  

But in the cruelest twist of fate, The Legend of Vox Machina took both new and old fans by surprise when Percy dies in Episode 7—and stays dead until the season’s final episode. 

In stark contrast to Vex’s quick death and revival in Season 2, the decision to take Percy off the board in a more long-term fashion came out of the series’ desire to repeat beats as little as possible, despite the continued use of tabletop conventions like revivals in their original game. “I think it’s nice for—well, “nice” [Laughs]—for audiences that know what’s coming, to expect Percy to have the same resolution quickly that Vex had, and to force audiences and characters to sit in that grief and suffer through it and realize what it means to them. It’s tragic and beautiful,” Bailey says. 

“I will give credit to Sam, because he is bloodthirsty. I feel like every meeting we ever have about any episode of the animated series is Sam going, ‘Can I kill someone in this episode? Please let me kill somebody!’” Jaffe laughs. “He was the one who came to me and asked if I would be willing to do this and if I thought it was a good idea. I love cruelty, I thought it was great. And I love the way it jumps between episodes. I think it’s such a wonderful smack after what happened to Vex and how we handled that.” 

Of course, Percy’s death wasn’t the only change made to the story told at the tabletop in Critical Role’s original liveplay series. At the very end of the season, Scanlan tells Vox Machina that it’s time for him to depart and spend time with his daughter. In the scene’s original form, Scanlan presses the group, asking them what his mother’s name is in an effort to prove that they know next to nothing about him—that they only see him as a funny music man they can call on anytime for a laugh and a drink. Ultimately, that version of Vox Machina proves him right: they can’t remember his mother’s name. 

In the series, the scene plays out much differently, by design. “Making a TV show is tricky because you want to put it all in there, and definitely we wanted to honor that moment, but the season has to end,” Riegel explains. “We don’t know if we’re ever going to make another season of this show or another episode of this show, and the way that it worked out, the last scene of the [The Legend of Vox Machina] could’ve been Scanlan saying ‘Fuck you’ to everybody and leaving, which didn’t seem like a really great way to end the show. So we adapted it into something that I think is still bittersweet and holds the intention of that moment, but if we ever do get further, future seasons, we have plans to honor that moment in a different way.” 

While the cast certainly constructed Season 3’s finale to potentially be a fitting end to the series if need be, Vox Machina fans can rest assured that they will see this wonderful band of misfits once again: just ahead of the season’s final episodes, Prime Video confirmed The Legend of Vox Machina will return for Season 4.

The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 is streaming in full on Prime Video. 

Anna Govert is an editor, critic, and TV obsessive whose work has appeared in Paste Magazine, The AV Club, Jezebel, and more. For any and all thoughts about TV, film, and her unshakable love of complicated female villains, you can follow her @annagovert. 

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