The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4 Review: Get Ready to Roll for Something Completely Different

Critic’s Rating: 3.75 / 5.0

3.75

Longtime viewers of Prime Video’s The Legend of Vox Machina know that, with this show, nothing is guaranteed except chaos.

When The Legend of Vox Machina returns on June 3 for its fourth season, everything’s slightly… off.

With a new face begging to be punched, a truly sinister Big Bad brewing up something horrific, and the team members spread far and wide, the adventure continues… but not along any path we’re familiar with.

The Legend of Vox Machine Season 4

Prime Video teases the new season like this: “In Season Four, we find ourselves a year after the Chroma Conclave. Vox Machina has separated, searching for love, family, and purpose.

“But as always, the call of adventure is a breath away. When a long-slumbering evil awakens to threaten the realm, they must reunite to take on an epic foe.”

What the tease doesn’t reveal is that not everyone was okay with going their separate ways. After everything they’ve gone through together, it’s not surprising that there’s some baggage left to unpack.

So reuniting to take on an epic foe won’t be as straightforward as it sounds. In fact, with everyone spending so much time being introspective — even Grog — the greatest threat might be inside the team.

The Matron of Ravens’ Champion, aka Vax

A little background: On The Legend of Vox Machina Season 2 Episode 4, “The Sunken Tomb,” half-elf Rogue/Paladin (yeah, that’s an actual thing) Vax Vessar offered himself to the death goddess, known as the Matron of Ravens, to save his twin sister’s life.

Now, in Season 4, that pledge has come home to roost as the Matron prepares him to do battle as her champion.

“Preparing” involves a body-breaking blight, some enigmatic visions, and the promise that he will die in the fight. Wow, thanks, Lady.

None of this sits well with Keyleth, Vax’s druid girlfriend, who has spent the year preparing to become the leader of the Air Ashari. The final stage of the Aramenté ritual will force her to fight the greatest foe she’s ever faced.

The Voice of the Tempest

Of all the members of Vox Machina, Keyleth has grown the most since the team formed. When she joined, she was socially awkward, insecure in her own powers, and unsure of the others’ moral fabric.

As she prepares to become The Voice of the Tempest, the Headmaster of the Air Ashari, it’s impressive how far she’s come.

Don’t get me wrong, she’s still awkward and insecure at times. But she’s found great strength and faith in her team.

She trusts them, even if their moral fabric is a bit threadbare. And because they believe in her, she’s learned to be the hero they see when they look at her.

Another character who has changed significantly from his original appearance is Scanlan. Season 3 saw him re-evaluate his life choices when his daughter, Kaylie, arrived fully grown and fostering some justifiable rage.

They formed a (musical) band and now travel the world via Scanlan’s very handy pocket dimension, Château Shorthalt.

A year of musical touring has firmly established Scanlan in his Fat Elvis Era. He’s also developed a real relationship with Kaylie, and that’s changed his priorities.

On many levels, he is still The Meat Man, but he’s a different cut now, aged (relatively) appropriately, and doesn’t pair as well with the Vox Machina vintage as he once did.

Getting the Band Back Together

And that’s the crux of The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4: After a year apart, pursuing separate interests and growing as individuals, the team doesn’t team like it used to.

There’s a hesitancy and caution when they find each other again. They want things to be the way they were, but none of them are the people they were a year ago.

The only two who have kept the spirit of Vox Machina alive are Pike and Grog. They’ve continued the nomadic mercenary lifestyle, but a single disenchanted cleric and her faithful, if simple, barbarian/fighter, does not a crack team make.

They are the downtrodden team remnants that newcomer Taryon Darrington finds when he comes to sign up as a member of Vox Machina. Yeah, because that’s how it works.

And, oh boy, Taryon is A LOT. If you consider that Percy has the artificer smarts, Keyleth, Vex, Vax, Scanlan and Pike their various magical smarts, and Grog the hit-em-harder smarts, there aren’t a lot of smarts left to have.

And that’s Taryon in a nutshell. Minimal smarts, maximum heart. He’s the Gen Alpha podcaster of our merry band, traveling with Doty, a mechanical note-taker as his biographer. Seriously.

Expertly voiced by the incomparable Wayne Brady, and seemingly accidentally useful in clutch plays, until you learn a bit about where he comes from, he’s hella annoying.

The Happy Couple?

And that brings us to Lord Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III and his adoring Vex’ahlia. Or alternatively, the noble Vex’ahlia Vessar and her doting Percy.

Stepping away from the marauding merc life to take on the roles of Lord and Lady de Rolo of Whitestone is a paradigm shift for the couple, who have spent most of their time together basically feral in terms of societal manners.

Life at the manor chafes when you’re used to roaming freely. And courtly protocol gets in the way of stabbing those who annoy you.

Even domestic bliss dulls when the arcane items in the basement start acting strange, and a reported “jaguar” in the woods turns out to be some sort of horrific abomination.

Of course, Whitehall is both Percy’s ancestral home and the site of his greatest trauma. How he plans to move forward without properly dealing with the Briarwoods’ specter is anyone’s guess.

Playing Happy Families

For DnD truists, Critical Role’s in-house innovations can be questionable.

And the translation to The Legend of Vox Machina medium means that the on-screen action is many degrees of separation removed from the reality of TTRPG play.

Nit-pickers will also note that clerics who don’t connect with their deity shouldn’t be able to wield the power that Pike slings, Vex should probably have handed in his paladin card a season ago, and classing Percy as a fighter is a weird flex.

But they’ve campaigned successfully together for three seasons, figuring out how to shore up each other’s skill gaps, building on their collective knowledge, having some bonkers, entertaining adventures.

With The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4, there’s a vibe of starting from scratch. Familiar is foreign. Routine is wrong. Bonds are broken.

Initially, despite the clumsiness of their reunion, they’re able to pull out some aces from the old playbook, but it takes real effort.

The Big Bad

Defending Exandria has always been an exercise in madness. Quite literally, at times.

Just when you’ve dealt with the freakin’ dragons, something older, more dangerous, and quite honestly, smarter than anything Vox Machina has come up against before decides to seize the day. And coerce the people. And ally with monsters.

While the team tries to figure out their personal and interpersonal damage, their opponent activates an epic plan with near-infinite moving parts and contingencies.

It would be a lot to handle when they were at the top of their game. But now, caught on the back foot after a year of physical separation and divergent life growth, Vox Machina might have to consider that this might not be their bag anymore.

As Scanlan observes in the trailer, “Classic Vox Mox. I did not miss the constant peril.”

This Is What They Do

Vox Machina has been active (and successful/destructive) enough to earn a reputation. Reputations establish expectations.

Beyond their prime mission statement of “f*cking sh*t up,” they save the world a lot.

And yeah, their deep emotional and sexual involvement with each other cuts many ways, not always good.

Vox Machina, despite their moniker, isn’t a machine. They aren’t an army. They’re barely a gang.

What they are and why they do what they do comes down to a driving need to fight evil. To that end, they’ll throw everything and anything at an enemy.

But their strength in the past has come from their unity. That’s the missing ingredient this season.

In fact, Season 4’s Big Bad timed their attack for when Vox Machina’s solidarity is at its all-time low. Like I said, smart.

Are You Ready For Season 4?

No. No, you really aren’t.

Even if you watched every hour of Critical Role’s third campaign, even if you believe Taryon Darrington was peak pompous when Riegel played him, even if you’ve calculated every possible tweak they could make between campaign and camera, you’re just not ready.

The Legend of Vox Machina faces very real annihilation with Season 4.

It’s a season that emphasizes the long game. It highlights the dangers of letting anger fester. It tests the patience, optimism, and suspension of disbelief of its followers.

It’ll also piss you off SO many times along the way. 100%. So, Fanatics, if you’re feeling apprehensive, excited, and skeptical about The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4, my job here is done.

Hit our comments section with your hopes, expectations, and existential dread! However, it lands emotionally. Season 4 will not go gently. Lube up well, friends, this is going to hurt.

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