Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to dive back into The Legend of Vox Machina, and follow up on the chilling conclusion of last episode. After over half a season of gradually nurturing the “Grog is wielding a cursed sword” narrative, all those bad dreams and grim portents were finally paid off, with Grog stabbing right through his best buddy Pike. And with a member of the Chroma Conclave literally breathing (acid) down their necks, Keyleth was forced to cast a hasty teleportation spell, leaving our heroes stranded across multiple realms.

All that made for some delightfully crunchy mechanical drama, and I’m eager to see how these smaller sub-parties illustrate their unique relational dynamics. Though splitting the party can be risky, Mercer’s players are clearly perfectly comfortable riffing off each other in smaller groups – and at this point, I’ve gained enough experience as a DM myself to appreciate just how much flexibility splitting the group provides, as well as its potential for letting individual players shine. Two sessions ago, my team conducted a heist that involved an interrogation on one floor, an infiltration on another, and a charismatic distraction on a third, and it was probably one of the best sessions we’ve ever had. As it turns out, structural ambition is only really limited by confidence – if you can keep the flow going and make sure everyone’s engaged, there’s no limit to what stories you can construct. I’m eager to steal more of Mercer’s excellent ideas, so let’s see what drama’s cooking in the Fey Realm!

Episode 7

Ooh, lovely fluffy flying creature animation as we pan back down into the Fey Realm. The big jump in incidental background animation and background art this season has really helped give the world a sense of vitality, lessening the sense that the area directly around our party is all that exists

Keyleth’s character acting is also quite good here. So we’ve got Vax, Vex, Percy, and Keyleth in the Fey Realm

They spell it “Fey” so that’s what I’m going with, but it’s taking all my strength not to write “Fae” instead. Fae is just so much nicer of a word!

Nice beat of Vax accommodating Keyleth’s panic and slowly guiding her out of it. They’ve built a natural in-game relationship out of what appears to be Vax’s player’s genuine confidence with the game relative to Keyleth’s player, to the point where character drama emerges naturally from their general responses to crisis and each other

I know a great part of their rapport comes down to the fact that all of these players are actual professional actors, but I do wonder what sort of challenges might facilitate more engagement and conversation between the player characters, rather than the usual standard of them all reacting individually to some external conflict. Outside of solving mechanical puzzles together, my players’ characters mostly just talk to each other when they’re deciding how evil of a solution is too evil

This episode really does feel like a step up visually, both in terms of incidental character animation and more dynamic boarding, like this composition where the focus racks from Vex in the foreground to Percy in the middle distance. The first season often defaulted to a flat line of characters centered in the screen, so it’s nice seeing this more energetic framing and camerawork

Extremely in character that Percy would have been fascinated by the Fey Realm as a kid, and also that he’d be supremely overconfident in what his books actually taught him about it. Buoyed on by his player’s obvious confidence, Percy has gained some of the most nuanced characterization of anyone – many of these characters are defined by the classic want/need dichotomy (Scanlan’s natural instincts versus his call to heroism, Keyleth’s desire to impress versus her need for genuine self-confidence, etcetera), but Percy’s developed a whole array of incidental quirks

More nice compositions as Vax is snagged by the Awoken Grove, using the inconsistent light piercing the grove to great dramatic effect

“I can’t believe I’m wasting this on a plant.” Extremely relatable player moment, and one that speaks to a natural disjoint between traditional narrative drama and D&D – characters in fiction are rarely worried that they’re using an item “before they’re supposed to,” but D&D players always have that fear on their mind

Elsewhere, the rest of the party port out in some kind of mountain range, and Pike sets to work fixing up that stab wound

Pike begs Grog to get rid of the sword. This is an interesting conflict in that Grog’s sacrifice here is actually mechanical, not just narrative. Mercer has demonstrated a willingness to actually weaken his players or take away their nice toys if the story demands it, which requires a certain degree of DM-player trust. It’s hard to invest in your character’s progression if you feel that progression could be taken away at random

More dynamic boards and effective use of the blinding sun as Grog wrestles with the sword, making his mania and disorientation visually clear

Back in the Fey Realm, Vex has found herself a satyr. I assume these narrative beats weren’t delivered simultaneously during Critical Role’s actual sessions, but this pretty much was how I handled my own party splitting – knowing when to make a “scene change” and cut in on someone else was essential

One of the greatest things about D&D is that whatever you know or are good at, there is likely some way of enriching your game through that proficiency. Never thought all my hours of scrutinizing the mechanics of pacing and scene changes would pay off quite like this

Grog shatters the Craven Edge, but it ends up taking his muscles in the bargain. “I’m as puny as Vax!”

More wonderfully exaggerated expressions, both for Grog and this plummeting satyr. They really pulled out all the stops for this episode

The satyr’s name is Garmelie

Vax snaps at Percy, maintaining the thread of antagonism forged by Percy briefly manslaughtering Vex

With the animation being this strong, the pressure’s kind of off the script to weave in a certain ratio of quips – Grog flailing around with his noodle arms is humor enough

I suppose getting less quippy and self-aware over time is probably a common pattern with D&D campaigns. Humor is a good way of participating without fully investing and becoming vulnerable, so as players’ confidence in their story and performance of character grows, the need to riff and deflate rather than earnestly commit subsides

“I never thought I’d see Scanlan the caregiver.” “If you’re into this, I can put on my naughty nurse’s outfit.” The interesting thing about Scanlan is that it seems like his personal arc is actually built around this transition. He’s generally the one to deflate tension with an off-color joke, but both his potential relationship with Pike and his interactions with the sphinxes center on his eventual need to take things more seriously

And Scanlan’s not the only one with this sort of cross-character/player journey. Grog’s mostly mechanically focused, so his sword is smashed to force him to interact with others in new ways – Keyleth’s player isn’t super confident, so her character arc is all about learning to believe in herself. Mercer seems to be taking his players’ standard habits into account as he builds their arcs, giving them challenges to overcome that reflect their actual struggles with the game

Garmelie’s proving himself an annoying but presumably useful guiding non-player. Slotting him into this Percy-led sequence was a fun idea – many of the characters would happily follow a guide, but Percy’s got something to prove, so he just keeps declining and stepping on rakes

Some really nice smears and flowing effects animation as the party faces off with a giant slime

And now some delightful psychedelic color design and warping forms as the girls trip on spores. What a generous episode!

Also some nice impact frames as Percy electrocutes the slime, earning back some points with Vax

At last, Percy has been chastened enough to accept Garmelie’s help. An nice overall riff on Percy’s generally stubborn nature, which I’m sure his player had a fun time playing out

The party arrives at Syngorn, the elven city where Vax and Vex once lived. Time for family drama!

And Done

Whew, that was one hell of an episode! Even by season two’s generally higher standards of animation and art design, this one was a clear standout, with lots of expressive character acting and energetic direction all throughout. And narrative-wise, this episode served as an emphatic affirmation of all the unique individual bonds that have developed between the different party members. Splitting the party in half ended up providing a perfect opportunity to catch up on both Scanlan’s relationship with Pike and Vax’s relationship with Percy, while the overall challenges presented here seemed precisely tuned to their respective characters’ journeys. Mercer seems to be gently but purposefully nudging his players out of their comfort zones, and thereby interweaving player mastery and character growth. Another trick I’ll be happy to steal!

This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.