Prime Video’s The Legend of Vox Machina Remains Excellent in Romantic, Harrowing Third Season

For the past three years, Critical Role and Prime Video’s animated triumph The Legend of Vox Machina has done it all: brought viewers to tears, elicited the most outrageous laughs, and defied all adaptational expectations to deliver a tale that is both familiar to seasoned fans yet accessible to newcomers as well. In its rollicking and surprisingly romantic third season, Vox Machina continues to be just as action-packed, well-animated, hilariously gross, and heartbreakingly heartfelt, all while focusing on the relationships between these compelling and dynamic characters. In short, it’s another awesome outing for the consistently-excellent animated series. 

Season 3 of The Legend of Vox Machina picks up right where Season 2 left off, with the dragon Raishan (Cree Summer) offering Vox Machina an alliance in order to bring down Thordak (the late, great Lance Reddick) once and for all. In those final moments of Season 2, we saw a brood of unhatched eggs in Thordak’s lair, and that thread instantly becomes troublesome for Tal’Dorei’s protectors. With more Vestiges to find and a ticking clock now counting down, twins Vex’ahlia (Laura Bailey) and Vax’ildan (Liam O’Brien), cleric Pike (Ashely Johnson), Ashari Keyleth (Marisha Ray), nobleman Percy (Taliesin Jaffe), kindhearted brute Grog (Travis Willingham), and bard Scanlan (Sam Riegal) must go to Hell (literally) in order to gain the protection they need to fight off this incoming horde before it’s too late. 

In my review of Season 2 of the series, I mentioned how its second outing found itself diving more deeply into each member of Vox Machina as individuals after the first season was spent building the group into a proper team. This time around, now that we’ve established these singular characters and kicked off their sometimes solitary journeys, Vox Machina pairs them off, allowing various romantic threads to spring up between these long-awaited slow burns. Critical Role’s live-play series has always thrived in the quiet moments between two characters, when it’s just two actors at the table having a conversation. Vox Machina Season 3 perfectly captures this spirit, allowing its various players to talk to each other in meaningful moments between the chaos of the season’s ticking clock. It’s admirable that this series is able to carve out that space within its short, 25-minute episodes, but Vox Machina understands better than most of its peers that the overarching plots and life-threatening dangers are only compelling and terrifying if we care about the people throwing themselves head-first into the fire. By taking the time to slow down and dedicate sequences to simple but impactful connections, the stakes are elevated beyond the threat of baby dragons and lost weapons. 

And while previous seasons have thrived in the balance between heartbreak and hilarity, Season 3 is much more perilous, and, in turn, sacrifices a majority of its crude humor in favor of heavier plot threads and character arcs. Especially in the later half of the 12-episode season (all of which were available for review), when rifts in their season-long fight and within the group dynamic cause cracks to form in this once-rock solid team, it’s both satisfying and upsetting to watch as these people bend and break away from one another and come back together by turns. But even if some of the levity is absent, the performances throughout more than make up for the lack of all-out laughs. Laura Bailey in particular offers a series-best performance as Vex, while Marisha Ray is once again allowed to truly shine as Keyleth. This voice cast is so stacked and impactful throughout Season 3 that it would be impossible to shout out every magnificent performance, but rest assured that everyone, from guest stars to our favorite members of Vox Machina, will absolutely tug on your heartstrings with a plethora of beautifully-delivered lines. 

This season once again takes some liberties in adapting Critical Role’s sprawling live-play campaign, but the changes always serve to improve the story in the transition to television. While playing a tabletop game, spells to revive characters and death-blows to huge foes are abstract shapes that have simply become old hat in their frequency at the table, but The Legend of Vox Machina ensures that every hit, every tear, and every death is as impactful and meaningful as possible. It’s a strikingly difficult task made to seem breathlessly easy in the hands of Critical Role, Titmouse Animation, and the entire team behind this series. And while I do think some fans will miss certain elements that were reinterpreted or simply abdicated all together, the resulting season is so thoughtfully paced and well-executed that it’s tough to imagine anything being reworked. 

More than anything, watching The Legend of Vox Machina is a true treat as both a feat of animation and a lovingly-crafted fantasy romp. It takes itself more seriously this time around, but it’s never weighed down by the gravity of its storylines or plot threads. Rather, The Legend of Vox Machina continues to effortlessly glide through a story that remains whole and realized in its moving adaptation of this sprawling odyssey. Like the determined team we know Vox Machina to be, Prime Video’s animated adventure returns with just as much bravado as its scrappy heroes, delivering another action-packed season with a charm that is impossible to resist (though you can certainly try). 

The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 premieres Thursday, October 3rd 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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