I'm gonna talk a little bit about the submitting to Vecna scene, specifically Vax and Keyleth. As cool as it is, there's a subtle misogynistic undercurrent to it that feels indicative of a broader trend in TLOVM. Bear with me.
The reason I want to talk about this scene specifically is because it's not present in the campaign and it asks the party a really interesting question. Submit to Vecna and save Vax, or try to fight Vecna and probably die while the whole world watches.
Obviously, Vax choosing to die here is awesome! It works great, I think it fits in the spirit of Vax's story, I love it. We know there's no way he will submit to Vecna but we still hope he will anyway, so it's perfectly tragic.
But this moment for Vax comes at the cost of Keyleth.
Vax choosing to die hurts Keyleth emotionally, but having Keyleth immediately submit hurts her characterization. At this point in the story, Keyleth isn't just Keyleth anymore. Keyleth is the Voice of The Tempest, leader of the Air Ashari.
There's nothing wrong with Keyleth submitting here, I think it's interesting for Vox Machina to stumble and give in to selfishness! But it's the complete, immediate surrender that sticks out—Keyleth is super fixated on Vax in this season in a bad way. She doesn't even seem to think about not submitting, just because it might save Vax. In fact, I'm really not sure what Keyleth's arc is this season outside of desperately trying to save Vax's life.
Before her water trial, Keyleth voices the idea that she cares more about Vax than about her Aramenté. This is insane, to say the least. Keyleth here is basically saying that the thing she's spent her entire life working towards means less to her than Vax.
I think this kind of love-driven selfishness can be done well, but must be done carefully with a female character. Keyleth in campaign one (and campaign three!) rides this line really well. Her responsibility to the Ashari feels like its at war with her love for Vax, but not in a way that makes Keyleth seem blinded or stupid.
In contrast, in TLOVM Keyleth frequently seems to completely disregard her responsibilities. In fact, the Ashari and the fate of Exandria are just completely unaddressed and apparently irrelevant in the face of her love for Vax. Who cares about the fate of the realm when Vax and her can get a happy ending. The fact that Keyleth just days ago was sworn in as the Tempest is meaningless, I guess?
Overall, Keyleth in TLOVM (particularly s4) suffers from being written as a little bit of an immature person who doesn't care about anything but "her man". I think her arc in s5 will be to get over that and accept Vax is "dead", but it's a little bit of a cruel shift to change her entire character arc to be about Vax rather than about coming into the mantle of leadership. This feels misogynistic, intentional or not, because it's reorienting Keyleth's story to be much more dependent on Vax.
