The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 Review - A Darker Season Of D&D Twists And Turns

Vox Machina has achieved a great victory with the death of Umbrasyl at the end of The Legend of Vox Machina Season 2, but just because they won the battle doesn't mean they've won the war. As Season 3 picks up we see Vox Machina go through some of their most troubling times as they continue to wage a war against dragons, as well as open themselves up to love and betrayal.

If you're interested in learning even more about The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 be sure to check out our interview with the entire cast where we discussed how they approached alterations to the plot, what it was like revisiting budding relationships in the recording booth, and a small update on The Mighty Nein.

Much like how Season 2 exploded into action so does Season 3, picking up in the middle of an action setpiece, our heroes attempting to make a hasty escape from a powerful foe before flashing back to the tense conversation we left off with from the end of Season 2.

Vox Machina Vs The Chroma Conclave

It's a quick and simple way to draw the viewers attention and get them excited for Vox Machina to swing into action, it also does an excellent job demonstrating just how out of their depths Vox Machina still is in the upward battle.

The main goals for this season are to obtain the rest of the Vestiges of Divergence, powerful artifacts that were created during the time of the Calamity. Obtaining as many of these objects is necessary to complete the larger goal, defeating the draconic cult known as The Chroma Conclave.

These adventures are played out as a number of split missions where we follow a few of the team at a time encountering a new challenge to overcome to obatin a vestige. These overlapping story beats do a fantastic job of continuously leading the viewer on and keeping them out of step from one another.

By the time one plot point has been resolved another has been set up and is nearing completion. This allows the pace to always remain consistently high keeping you actively engaged. In many ways the plot delivery structure remains faithful to a traditional Dungeons & Dragons-style story, seeding information to players while they seek out other story avenues.

At all times The Legend of Vox Machina feels like it's speedrunning to the end of it's own story. While this is in part due to the 12 episode limit it also makes sense from a plot perspective as they're trying to condense what was 100+ hours worth of Actual Play content into four hours of concise and entertaining story. While I'll always wish there were more seasons, I can also understand why it feels so rapidly paced.

Plot Variations

Season 3 has also stepped even further off the well worn path as it continues to rearrange key plot points for narrative purposes or even create entirely new scenarios.

Of the major changes that I noticed I was happy with all of them, one even had me calling out to my TV in disbelief. There may be many who will view some of these changes with disdain or questioning as to why they didn't stick with the original idea, I think with what they know now and with a further 10 years of roleplaying completed (including 30 years of in-universe history being fleshed out) it's great to see the interweaving of these additional plots, seeding these ideas for future seasons, shows, and spin-offs.

Tonal Shift

Something that all viewers will notice about this season is just how much more mature the tone of the show is. Facing serious threats also comes with grave consequences as Vox Machina experiences grief and loss in a way that they only grazed against in previous seasons.

It's not just about the loud moments that the group can share, but the quiet and lonely moments that will sit with you long after the season has wrapped up.

The added seriousness isn't just from the dark moments though, as relationships among the party grow stronger we get to see two very earnest takes on companionship while the threat of impending doom looms on the horizon. For Vax and Keyleth, there is fear in what they could lose leading to hesitancy to get involved, while Percy and Vex are seeking out a relationship to experience it before they lose the chance to.

Just because there is a much more serious tone doesn't mean that there isn't a place for slapstick humor, crass jokes, or raunchy musical numbers. There is still a lot of those kinds of moments inbetween the epic set pieces and atmospheric battles.

If anything, how dark the rest of the season gets makes those moments of fun and laughter even more important.

Critical Role Fan's Delight

This season is jam-packed with a number of 'blink and you'll miss it' references to people and places in the world of Exandria that we might see in the future, and even an amazing musical interlude dedicated to Jester Lavorre's mother from a bard in the back of a bar.

For fans of Vox Machina and the extended Critical Role story every episode will have you smiling or leading forward doing the Leo Pointing Meme.

Thankfully none of these references are ever pulling a viewer away from the story, and with so many it will take a few rewatches before you could confidently say you've seen everything that the show has to over. 

The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 Review | Final Thoughts

The Legend of Vox Machina has had another successful season and with it they've been able to improve across the board. This season has managed to show character development across the board, not just as we previously new it but with added depth as each character's journey has had the chance for an additional writing take.

On top of character development the show has also managed to steer into a darker and more serious space without losing a lot of the charm of the original 'bumbling' adventures that we saw most predominantly through Season 1.

The Legend of Vox Machina, Critical Role, and Titmouse have me excited for the continued adventures of Vox Machina, anticipating reliving the journeys of the Mighty Nein, and keep me hopeful to see other epic events from the annals of Exandria such as Calamity or Downfall animated.

The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 was reviewed with early access provided to us by Amazon Studios.