The Legend of Vox Machina 7-9 (Spoiler-Free) Review
Hello and welcome to my review of the third batch of episodes for The Legend of Vox Machina: Season One on Amazon Prime Video! This is a spoiler-free review of The Legend of Vox Machina, so you’re safe from that sort of nonsense here. Overall, I didn’t quite enjoy this batch of episodes as much as I did the previous three, but there were still some strong moments and I do have a new favorite overall episode! So without further delay, let’s go ahead and dive into my spoiler-free thoughts on The Legend of Vox Machina, episodes seven, eight, and nine.
Scanbo Gave Me What I Wanted (and Needed)
In my previous review, which covered episodes four, five, and six of the first season of The Legend of Vox Machina, I mentioned that Scanlan was beginning to feel a little one-note, which was leaving a sour taste in my mouth because I know he’s a more well-rounded character than the show was giving him credit for. Well, with the seventh episode of the show—and my new personal favorite—we got exactly what I wanted: time to see Scanlan be someone other than the group whoremonger. This episode really fleshed Scanlan out a lot more, took time to give him the spotlight, and was just as much fun as the Scanbo episode of Campaign 1!
I feel like this Scanlan-centric episode came not a moment too soon. Heck, if it could have happened sooner, I would have really appreciated that. I think viewers who aren’t familiar with the first campaign who are starting to grow weary of Scanlan in the show will find that they actually love this character when they get to the seventh episode. This episode is exactly what the show needed to make sure Scanlan didn’t get dismissed as being a character with nothing to offer but raunch and a couple of songs. I love Scanbo and it is easily my favorite episode of the series so far.
Some Clunky Dialogue
Honestly... this batch did have some clunky dialogue within it, I’ve got to say. Yeah, I don’t want to say it because I love Critical Role and I really want to see this show succeed, but this is a review and I’ve got to be honest. The dialogue in a few of these episodes, particularly the 9th episode, can be pretty bad. Episode 7 opens with a very heavy-handed flashback where the dialogue feels unnatural and forced, which I think could have been helped by splitting the flashback into two scenes instead of having everything happen at once. Then, in the ninth episode, we have some dialogue that’s meant to develop Percy’s character, but it really just makes the development feel rushed and blatant rather than smooth and believable.
I know that some people aren’t going to enjoy hearing that, but even after a couple of rewatches, I couldn’t get past the fact that the transition for Percy in the ninth episode just isn’t all that believable. It’s close, but the character development is so abrupt and in-your-face that it doesn’t hit the way that it should. I think that if they had given Percy a few opportunities in prior episodes to be the person he becomes at the end of the ninth one, only to have him fail to step up and thus face consequences, the progression in this episode would have been easier to swallow.
Still, There Are Some Good Jokes
Unfortunately, the reliance on slapstick humor continues with the show in this third batch of episodes. This is very much just a personal taste thing, but for me, it feels like The Legend of Vox Machina is starting to beat the dead horse with a few of its gags. That is ultimately just going to be up to the kind of viewer you are and what sort of comedy you appreciate in your shows, but the comedy is only landing for me about half the time.
With that being said, I’ve got to give praise to some of the humor that they have in this show. While it only lands for me half the time, sometimes when the humor lands, it lands. There are some really great lines in a few of these episodes and even a couple of genuine laugh-out-loud moments that I really enjoyed. I’d love to see more of that and less of the looping “Scanlan goes to brothels” and “Grog doesn’t know what things are” jabs. Those are fine in moderation, but the jokes that are more creative and clever are the ones I’m enjoying.
Outstanding Action
The boss battle in episode eight kinda required me to suspend my disbelief because I feel like the villain wasn’t really strategizing as well as he should have (and, truthfully, neither was Vox Machina). So while the fight was awesome and tense, it always felt to me like the way that it was set up should have resulted in it ending a bit sooner. The villain was shown to be a coward who wanted others to do his dirty work, but then he stopped trying to escape to safety. I would have appreciated a better show of his cowardliness in his strategies, which would have made the fight a lot more interesting.
And yet, in spite of that complaint, the action in this show is getting better with each and every episode that’s put out. I am loving the violence we’re seeing here, it’s really well done and there is clearly a lot of thought put into the storyboarding of these action sequences. They have done an excellent job and I cannot wait for the finale. I’m eager to see what’s in store with these last three episodes and the action that they’ll provide to us.
One Last Gripe
Okay, I know I’ve been more negative than I’d like to be in this review, but I’ve just got one last gripe I want to get out of the way before I give my overall scores for each of these three episodes. The animation has improved greatly since the first two episodes, which I found to be rather poorly done in terms of the animation quality. However, at the end of the eighth episode, we get an animation with Keyleth waving her hands around that is… well, it’s jarringly bad. I’m not sure how it made it all the way to being published. At first, I thought something was wrong with my network, but, nope.
The rest of the animation has been largely great, with only a few notable stutters, so I’m not going to be docking points for this one, but I did want to point it out. There are still a couple of moments throughout the show here and there where the animation feels unfinished, but overall it has greatly improved compared to those first two episodes.
Overall Rating
All right, and now let’s get to my overall rating for each of these episodes. After having watched each episode of this batch a couple of times, I feel like this is a weaker batch than the second one overall, but definitely not as poor as the first batch of episodes we got. I also have a new favorite episode in Scanbo, which was simply wonderful. I adored that episode so much. The others, though, weren’t quite as good and will be getting lower star ratings as a result. So… here are those star ratings.
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Conclusion
While this third batch of episodes wasn’t quite as great as the previous batch, in my opinion, I am extremely hopeful that this show will end on a high note. Not just because I know how the Briarwood arc ends in the first campaign, but because I have faith that they’re going to pull out all the stops with the final batch of The Legend of Vox Machina’s first season. I’ll be reviewing episodes ten, eleven, and twelve, the finale, next Monday! I cannot wait to feast my eyes on the conclusion to this first season.
Until next time, bye!
