The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4 Review

The Legend of Vox Machina

Prime Video

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.

Season 4 of The Legend of Vox Machina takes the adventurers to a new, dark and intense place as they try to find a life for themselves in the aftermath of the Chroma Conclave. Having gone their separate ways, some relationships grow deeper while others lament their lack of purpose. It’s a great starting point for these characters who spent the previous seasons discovering who they are both as individuals and as a team.

Season 4 finds the team fractured while they pursue who they are outside of saving the world with Percy (Taliesin Jaffe) and Vex’ahlia (Laura Bailey) settling into a comfortable life in Whitestone surrounded by the trappings of station and hosting balls for the wealthy elite in the realm. I continue to love the chemistry between these characters and how they navigate their life together while also supporting each other in their desires to return to their adventures. It shows a wonderful growth in their characters that the audience will enjoy.

Vax’ildan (Liam O’Brien) and Keyleth (Marisha Ray) are on an adventure of their own as Keyleth decides to take the final step in her journey while Vax deals with the reality of being the champion of the Matron of Ravens. There is the makings of a tragic love story in this pairing as Vax deals with illness and Keyleth deals with her helplessness in the face of helping the man she loves. The scenes between them are amazing and also show them as supporting partners who would do anything for each other.

Best buddies Grog (Travis Willingham) and Pike (Ashley Johnson) are having a different experience outside of being in the group as Pike deals with not only feeling a lack of purpose, but also the fracturing of her found family and the loss of her connection to her god the Everlight. Grog is doing his best to find ways to cheer her up and the call to action returns in the form of a new face this season, the foppish, foolish and eager Taryon Darrington (Wayne Brady). Brady does a fantastic job of joining in the fun of this group and manages to make Taryon an interesting character outside of his naivete and lack of skill.

The one person missing from the group at the beginning of the season is Scanlan (Sam Riegel) who left at the end of last season with his daughter to parts unknown. I won’t spoil any parts of his story, but the character plays a significant role in events of this season which take a dark turn right away.

As a fan of the original campaign, I was curious how the threat of this season would play out and was not disappointed. From supernatural cults to an unexpected return, the story places its villains in a unique position and shows that they have been very busy during the year Vox Machina was away. The villains in this season are devoted to their cause and I love that the story gets very personal for several members of the team as they are challenged to confront their own pasts, their mistakes and their unresolved traumas as well as history they didn’t know and consequences they couldn’t imagine.

The action is visually stunning and so much credit needs to go to the animators at Titmouse for crafting not only beautiful character designs, but also visually lush and engaging environments. I love revisiting the world of Exandria and the season does a fantastic job of bringing those worlds to life as well as drawing the eye with every scene. The story is brilliantly action oriented, but it allows for moments of great emotion, depth and humor to shine through.

Not every episode works and there are some that can be narratively clunky, but the ones after always bring me back to everything that I love about this series, these characters and the world they inhabit. I was genuinely satisfied with every twist and turn this season took and the finale left me amazed, enthralled and excited to see what comes next for this band of heroes. I definitely recommend this season for fans of the animated series as well as those who have been watching the campaign it is adapted from. You won’t be disappointed.