The Legend of Vox Machina is an opportunity for the solid of Vital Position to revamp their first marketing campaign. Generally meaning characters who weren’t current for sure occasions now get to play larger roles. Different occasions meaning pulling in lore and mythology of Exandria that didn’t get fleshed out until after Vox Machina concluded its first run in 2017.
Within the case of the newest episodes, meaning turning a small gameplay hiccup into an enormous emotional second. And the solid was all for it.
[Ed. note: This post contains massive spoilers for the newest episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina, as well as spoilers for the Vox Machina Critical Role campaign.]
The seventh episode of The Legend of Vox Machina ends with gunslinger Percy de Rolo (Taliesin Jaffe) providing mercy to the devious Anna Ripley (Kelly Hu). And as an alternative of taking it, she shoots him within the chest and he falls useless.
There’s the same second within the marketing campaign, however the remainder of the celebration is ready to shortly rush Percy to a temple and resurrect him. Nevertheless, within the present, it appears like he’s going to remain useless.
“Within the marketing campaign, we have been in a position to convey him again in a short time, however I believe that may be one thing that loses its gravity if you happen to’re always in a position to revive any individual who has died over and over,” explains Laura Bailey, the voice of half-elf ranger Vex’ahlia. “So to be able to make us sit with it and expertise that grief, I believe it wanted to be prolonged.”
“And provides it consequence,” provides Jaffe. “There are positively penalties left over.”
There’s no scarcity of how to convey again a fallen companion in Dungeons & Dragons. However whereas having a resurrection possibility is an effective way to not completely lose morale when dealing with a troublesome enemy whereas enjoying with your mates across the desk, in a tv present, a simple revival cheapens the ever-increasing stakes.
“We wished loss of life to really feel consequential,” says Travis Willingham, who performs barbarian Grog and in addition writes for the present. “We wished it to have weight, in any other case it might simply really feel flighty and never a giant deal if a personality goes down. And so this was actually a time to get a intestine verify about what’s vital round these characters and actually how fragile they are often and the way non permanent some of these items is, if you happen to’re not cautious.”
Percy’s loss of life sends an emotional shock wave all through the whole celebration. And in contrast to different heavy moments all through the present, which that they had performed by some model of earlier than throughout the precise play marketing campaign, this plotline was new and significantly uncooked. Since Vex’ahlia and Percy have a romantic relationship — which they lastly acted on this season — Bailey discovered the grieving to be significantly satisfying to dig into, draining because it was.
“We’d go away the periods after which simply really feel horrible the remainder of the day, however I believe it was obligatory,” says Bailey. “We began out the whole sequence and [Vex] could be very standoffish, closed off from the get-go. That’s the way it was within the marketing campaign as properly. She was harsh as an individual as a result of she felt she wanted to be. However I wished to verify within the sequence that we received to discover why she was like that and actually get to see these partitions coming down. And thru her grief and her remorse of being closed off and never letting him know what he meant to her, she was in a position to develop as an individual. I don’t assume she would’ve gotten there had it not been for the trauma.”
There was one one that didn’t face an enormous emotional problem, nevertheless.
“It was simple on my finish,” says Jaffe.
“You simply shut your eyes,” Bailey provides.
New episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina drop each Thursday.