The hit Prime Video show The Legend of Vox Machina (named after their team) continues to prove its success as the announcement of season two’s release also revealed that the show has already been renewed for a season three. An adaptation of the first Dungeons and Dragons campaign that the cast of the web series Critical Role ever streamed, with over 100 episodes and over 500 hours of content, there’s a lot that has to be done in order to make the adaptation story-driven for TV, but still as close to the original as possible.
Longtime fans of the Twitch/YoutTube series would know that the first season of Vox Machina already began to change some things around, as the show not only starts in a storyline that happened off-screen, but skips the entire first arc of the web series. Things like this are crucial to keeping the story as tight as they can to maintain an entertaining TV series. So, how do story arcs that span dozens of hours get condensed into these 22-minute episodes while still bringing the Vox Machina into seasons two and three?
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Season One Replaced Kraghammer For Good Reason
One of the biggest decisions that changed the high fantasy story from the very beginning was removing the entirety of Vox Machina’s trip to Kraghammer that started the original web series off. Though the dwarven city and the mines underneath it proved to be an exciting tale and an interesting way to introduce all the characters to the world, ultimately, the city and everything that happened there doesn’t tie itself into anything else from the show.
Besides one notable NPC introduction as they rescued Lady Kima, who returns several times throughout the rest of the campaign, nothing else from their time at Kraghammer made a reappearance when the plot started picking up with the Briarwoods, the Chroma Conclave and, subsequently, the Whispered One.
Vox Machina From Brimscythe to Briarwood
What instead introduced Vox Machina’s ensemble cast of characters was a moment that happened with the group before they began filming their campaign as a web series: the hunt and fighting of Brimscythe, a blue dragon that had hidden himself among the council of Emon in an attempt to take over the city. Vox Machina managed to discover his ruse, as well as put an end to it by killing him, but what they didn’t know at the time was that he was a part of a much bigger plot, as he himself was a member of the Chroma Conclave. This moment was important to bring to life on the screen for future plot purposes, as it was their first interaction with this much bigger coming problem.
Since the Brimscythe plot was so short and they had to fill the rest of the season out with something, it made sense to go right into the Briarwood arc, which helps keep the action going as well as the story. It was the first filmed arc that was not only necessary for TV due to Percy De Rolo’s heavy character involvement and growth within it, but that was the first hint towards the Whispered One as well, an important antagonist later in the group’s story.
This required some favorite NPCs and some important ones, such as Lady Kima, Lady Allura, and Captain Jarrett to be reworked, as Vox Machina would have known them all from before and during their trip to Kraghammer. Whitestone is also an important city to have restored, as Vox Machina returned there many times throughout their story, and many of them retired there as well. Though it’s unclear if we will see it quite as often in the Prime Video TV show, it’s unlikely we’ve seen the last of it in season one.
Critical Role’s Shopping and Filler Episodes Wouldn’t Fit
Every D&D campaign is bound to have a lot of extra time in them, whether for necessary purposes or just because the players don’t find the next quest hook right away. Keeping a party well stocked with the best weapons, armors, and potions they can afford is necessary as they progress into more and more dangerous, monster-filled D&D adventures. This means that entire sessions might essentially be spent shopping, as players try to discover where shops are, what they might be selling, and maybe even haggle the price down into something they can more easily afford.
Critical Role is no different, often taking entire sessions to shop, craft new items, and plan or prepare for what’s coming ahead. An entire TV episode just about exploring the interior of Gilmore’s Glorious Goods and haggling prices would probably make people leave without enjoying any action or story. So, in order to help speed things along but still see beloved NPCs like Gilmore, we only see them in the shop for a few moments to help further the plot in order to avoid an episode that doesn’t do much.
A lot of smaller side quests or activities have to get cut out as well. While filler episodes were once popular in all kinds of TV, in this era of binge-watching, leaving the plot for an entire beach episode (or, more realistically, the Winter’s Crest Festival) isn’t something you often see anymore. When Vox Machina defeats the Briarwoods, they get to spend Winter’s Crest in the city, playing games with the locals, getting their fortunes read, and overall just enjoying the holiday. While fun, it’s not relevant to the plot at all, so it unfortunately had to be cut.
How to Keep Legend of Vox Machina Relevant
Some episodes were also purposefully made to diverge from the story, when one or more cast members couldn’t attend for the night, but they were needed for the coming story. One of the more obvious ones being when Taliesin Jaffe, who plays Percy, couldn’t make it right before they left for Whitestone, so instead of leaving without him, they had a separate episode that ended up with all of them turning into flying cows. While irrelevant and not practical at all for the story they want on the show, they still included a reference to it in the banners we see at Grayskull Keep.
Of course, the web series had a lot of guests on it too. From inviting friends to play with them, to other D&D players or great voice actors, to even a few celebrities, throughout their many adventures, they’re never alone. However, many of these special guest episodes focused on the special guest and whatever their story was, meaning it would yet again be another divergence from the story. No matter how beloved these guest characters are, it will take a lot of rewriting to be able to include some of them, as it wouldn’t make sense to divert the story line just to include them.
Perhaps the biggest story they skipped over that was well-loved was the Slayer’s Take, where Vox Machina was split in half to make room for four guests, each party taking two of them onto separate contracted beast hunts. We can only hope they’ll find a way to bring some of these favorite characters in, especially those that became recurring guests.
Season 2 and 3 Will Both Span the Next Arc
It was confirmed by the cast themselves on Twitter that the next story arc will take two seasons to complete. This comes as a relief to many fans, as there are a lot of important story beats to hit in the next arc, not only related to the Chroma Conclave, but to specific characters and their development as well. New fans might not understand what we’re getting into, but old fans definitely know that we’re in for a lot of adventure in these coming seasons.
With the four dragons now coming to attack Emon, many battles for the ages will have to take place, but the team in The Legend of Vox Machina will also need some upgraded gear if they have any hopes of saving the continent. One of the biggest issues they may face is how many character deaths and resurrections happened throughout the next arc, some of them being rather important to the story. Too many deaths and resurrections at once might make the very difficult and rare magic seem too easy, so they might have to pick and choose, or show us more near deaths instead like Keyleth in season one.
What to Expect in Vox Machina’s New Seasons
There are plenty of key character moments for almost everyone in the next arc that will be interesting to see if they come to fruition or not. Though they didn’t adapt Keyleth’s Aramenté to the Fire Ashari in season one, it’s already hinted we’ll see it soon. However, another story they missed was discovering Scanlan’s daughter, something that might be difficult to include without completely rewriting it. Grog also has a lot of personal stories, from the strange sword he picked up after defeating the Briarwoods to meeting familiar faces of his past, something we’ll surely get to see soon.
The twins, Vex and Vax, also have a tense family reunion, one that people think was hinted at with concept art for season two of Vox Machina released at NYCC. Vax also has a new challenge to face, as he won’t only be a rogue anymore, but soon will also be taking a few levels in paladin. Even Percy might have some more character issues, because after fighting his literal demons, Anna Ripley still got away, something that is definitely going to come back to haunt them. That alone is a lot, not to mention the overarching dragon story, so it’s almost certain we’ll see these things split up over both seasons.
One of the biggest things about the Chroma Conclave arc is just how much traveling Vox Machina does, meaning there are a lot of new cities, locations, and even realms that need to be designed in order to bring them to life on the screen. Chances are, we’ll be traveling overseas to the continent of Issylra, as both Keyleth and Vax have important stories in and around the religious city of Vasselheim. However, other intercontinental trips, like the trip to Marquet to speak to the leader in Ank’Harel, unfortunately don’t help much in fighting the conclave and probably won’t be adapted from Critical Role.
Surely, the hardest locations they’ll have to design will be those in different realms: if all goes according to the web series, we’ll see the fire plane twice, both in the Aramenté and later on, but we’ll also see the Feywild, as the elven city Syngorn has hidden itself there to hide from the dragons. That doesn’t even include other cities they travel to in Tal’Dorei itself. It certainly looks like we’ll get a lot more content out of the Chroma Conclave with two seasons, instead of trying to condense it all into one. That might mean you’ll have to wait a little longer for some of the moments you’re waiting for, but we can be certain they’ll show us as much as they can fit into the plot.
