'The Legend of Vox Machina' – Season 2


Well, it turned out there were only twelve episodes after all and I went through them a little quicker than I'd planned (What? They were good...) so while I catch up on a little reading while I'm headed into work, you lucky folks get to hear all about how I found this second season of 'The Legend of Vox Machina'. If you've been following my previous posts on the series, you can probably take a guess and be confident of getting it right. If you haven't (or if you're just still here...), let me tell you about it.

I have the most passing of passing acquaintances with 'Critical Role' (I know it's a thing, that's it) so I have no idea which bits of the show fit with which chunk of the game. All I know, right now, is that no sooner had Vox Machina dealt with those vampire types and come back to the capitol to bask in some well deserved acclaim... A bunch of dragons turn up and level the place.

Our heroes must go against the instincts of a lifetime and take another stand against evil. And while they're doing that, a few secrets are about to come out...

Well, that was brilliant :o) Season 2 operates very much on the 'if it ain't broke...' model, the end result being that it's very easy not only to slip back into the groove of the team dynamic (and ensuing misadventures etc) but also just to go for 'one more episode'. This would explain why I was able to finish the Season in record time, for me, and now be sat here wishing that I'd been just a little more patient... I want Season 3 to hurry up and get here now.

It's not just the 'same old stuff' being trotted out though. The stakes are raised appropriately high and the band are finding it a real challenge to get anything done. Maybe the outcome isn't in that much doubt but you're left feeling that they really had to work for it so I was cool with how it went down. But it's not just that either... As the Season progresses, we're drip fed more and more about each member of the group. Scanlan's arc was the most impactful but gave rise to the funniest joke (I mean, I saw it coming but it was worth sticking around for anyway). Grog's arc was just brutal but left me loving the big guy even more :o) The others get their turn, of course they do, but Scanlan and Grog were the main ones for me.

But you know what? The moments I love the most are the moments where the group do something utterly ridiculous and you know that this was pitched to the DM, in-game, and they just went with it. If you've seen the last couple of episodes then you know exactly the moment I'm talking about. I was all, 'they're not going to... are they?' and then I was all, 'damn... they only went and did it'. Nice work Scanlan ;o)

Add a constant low level of 'background combat' (I know what I mean) and the trippiest Fey Realm ever, it all ended up being just what I needed and a Season 2 that was well up to the standards set by Season 1. I loved it. 

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