Not every criticism of TLOVM is due to its un/faithfulness to the original stream.
Take the following scenes from the latest season, for example. Neither hails from the source material, but the contrast between them is illuminating.
(Spoilers for episodes 3x02 and 3x10 below the cut.)
Prisoners of Ank'Harel
At the climax of S3x02, J’mon accuses Vox Machina of a crime they didn’t commit; to spare the rest, Percy takes the blame, and the Emperex readies a sentence.
But J’mon doesn’t name the sentence. They only call it a transformation, and lift a headpiece over Percy. This puts it in the same frame as J’mon’s mindless guards, revealing they bear an identical design.
Based on previous episodes, I expected J'mon to explain:
“This circlet will make you as they are, prisoners and criminals I put into service to…”
You get the idea.
But there’s no further explanation. Or exposition. Instead, the show leaves visual cues so the viewers can clock Percy’s imminent fate.
(In the same vein, I appreciate they didn't outright tell us J’mon is a dragon. Raishan uses a humanoid disguise, then Vex’s dragon sense tingles in the Emperex’s presence....We can figure out what J’mon’s deal is from that.)
To The Ends of The Earth.
Compare this to the earth trial chamber scene in S3x10, ‘‘To the Ends of the Earth.’’ The Ashari council states the trial could kill Keyleth, and the chamber is a gallery of anguished-faced statues. Like with Percy’s sentence, they could’ve left it at that, especially since Keyleth will fight against turning to stone once the ritual begins.
Despite all that, Keyleth comments on the statues and prompts her teacher to explain them. In doing so, the show turns to the camera and says:
“So you get it, right? Do I need to say it again? Should I talk slower?”
This is an unnecessary exposition. At its best, it wastes time or breaks the audience’s immersion; at worst, it does both. Season one took pains to clarify that this show is for adults. “Adult” doesn’t just mean swearing, gore, and nudity; adult can also mean assuming your audience can pick up what you're putting down.
Again, neither scene is from the stream. And the first handles its exposition well, in an understated fashion. It gives us enough information to understand what’s happening without being told. But the second scene is excessive. It gives us multiple indirect hints that are good enough to get the point across, but then tells us straight out, regardless.
The second scene is an easy fix if you remove a few lines. What it lacks isn’t faithfulness but subtlety. If this show can cultivate that more often, it has the potential to be great on its own terms.
ok im going to get off my usual perc’ahlia soapbox to outstretch my hand to the vaxleth mains (hi babes we really in it now) and say holy shit
these new parallels between Vax and Keyleth
(or if not new so very strengthened)
LIKE. LISTEN.
She did not choose this path, she did not, she embarked on the same journey her mother did. For her family, for her tribe, out of love, out of duty. Like her mother before her. Made to pass through fire.
One day a mantle will rest on her shoulders and though she can take it off it writes its weight into her skin. She sees it in the mirror even when it’s not there. She did not choose this power or this responsibility and she rises, she rises to the challenge.
He did not care what he chose, only that he chose for his sister to live. Whatever the fuck he chose, it wasn’t this, he had no idea what he signed up for but he will not balk, he will not falter, he can’t because his sister breathes. For his family, his family of one, out of love, out of duty. They have a deal. Do not go far from me.
Today, he can’t take it off. It clings like a lover’s touch (such loneliness in her eyes), he can’t forget it even for a second, can’t rid himself of what the mantle he has taken up. This role is his now and he will not forget it
What do you mean by 'trying to mighty nein-ify vm instead of having actual character moments'? Not intending to be hostile or aggressive, I just saw those tags and got curious.
That's okay! Mighty Nein-ification is a bit of a misnomer (especially because it's unnecessarily hostile to the Nein). The problem isn't so much making Vox Machina like the Mighty Nein (all indications are that VM was just as rough around the edges as the Nein were when they were starting out), it's that I think they retreated to old shorthands they were familiar with that work well with the Nein and don't work with VM in the time they had.
So when we first meet Vox Machina in the stream, they're already established and respected adventurers at level 9 sent on a quest by a member of the Council of Tal'dorei. They've already killed Brimscythe and the Dread Emperor and saved the Sovereign and his family; while we see their scrappier beginnings in the Origins comics, it's purely backstory in the campaign. With the Nein it's the opposite, where we actually follow them through their low-level adventures as they get to know each other, watching them argue and mistrust each other and slowly build up both their friendships and their clout within the political factions of Wildemount. We watch them go from a gang of slapdicks who no one likes or respects and are constantly fighting to a strong and cohesive team of movers and shakers.
Here's the problem: the cast is now producing an animated adaptation of Vox Machina's campaign, which is almost universally agreed to really pick up around episode 24, the beginning of the Briarwood arc. Between the slower-paced first 20 episodes and the red dragonborn in the room, the Briarwood arc makes the most sense as the starter story. We can't just jump right into that without taking some time to establish VM as a party, right? That's what the opening two-parter of season 1 is for: they need to establish who Vox Machina are as individuals and a party so we have a baseline understanding of them before following them through an iconic storyline. There are different ways they could do this!
And the way they chose to do it was "gang of slapdicks who no one likes or respects and are constantly fighting".
This would have been fine if they weren't starting with the Briarwood arc and leading into the Conclave arcs, which both require VM to have some rapport with each other and the Tal'Dorei Council to work. Instead VM are still on thin ice with the council and honestly don't give anyone a reason not to think of them that way even before everything goes wrong at the feast. (Like, I don't think Scanlan's antics in 1x03 are funny; I think they make him look like a dumbass and they make VM look like dumbasses by association.) Allura and Kima barely tolerate them and Allura is reluctant to speak in their defense when the Sovereign puts them under arrest. I can understand that they thought this kind of conflict would be more interesting, but this is the lead-in to the Briarwood arc. There's PLENTY of conflict here to be interesting! Why not try to build up Vox Machina as a competent party with friendly allies who struggle with but still overcome a difficult challenge, maybe straight-up open on them killing Brimscythe and then lead into a truncated Kraghammer arc?
Because this doesn't just make for a lackluster opening two-parter. Emon being so hostile to the party means they have very little investment in or connection to the city, and then for the Briarwood arc they spend the rest of their time in Whitestone. As a result, when the Conclave attacks, it lacks emotional weight. Keyleth has a line in season 2 about their home being destroyed that falls flat because Emon wasn't their home; they were kicked out of every tavern and multiple people pointed out how bad their reputation was. The lack of friendship with Kima and Allura makes their meeting in Season 2 Episode 5 very jarring, because they greet each other like old friends when they're not. (I think Seasons 2 and 3 did a good job developing Allura and Kima's friendship with VM, but this is work that should have had its foundation laid sooner.) When Keyleth asks the question of "why are we even together", it's never really answered in the emotional sense in which it's asked. Why are they together? Because at the eleventh hour they finally started acting competent, I guess. Don't get too attached to the idea of that theme, because it's not gonna come up again all season.
You see what I'm saying here? They didn't go for what would most efficiently tell the story in a way that made sense; they went for tropes—archetypal stories of scrappy underdogs pulling together for a common goal. And while it seems like a quick fix that solves the problem of distilling the first twelve levels of Vox Machina's campaign into a 12-episode season, in the long term it undercuts what the show intends to do later because the groundwork they laid was too focused on using familiar adventure story imagery to try to push audience reaction buttons. That's a problem that has hung over this show for three seasons now, and I think the metapigeons have come home to roost.
god i have so much i could say about tlovm s2 so far but all my brain is providing is rot about scanlan and vex and oh boy i am. so very intrigued by the space that the show is giving their dynamic because it’s certainly one that I think is essential to their character arcs in campaign one but i also know that isn’t an opinion that is always held by campaign one enjoyers. but god between their hostile but caring dynamic in s1 and the foiling that is happening between the twins and scanlan and his lack of someone who evidently cares for him (post dragon splitting up, when the twins reunite scanlan has a witty comment about how he’s also glad he’s alive and then in ep3 after vax stops vex from trekking across the lake to find the tomb because it might not be safe, no one stops scanlan from doing the same when he volunteers seconds later) i am so, So happy that my favourite mask wearing, comedy wielding, self hating members of vox machina are being presented as the power duo that they are.
and just god. their relationship in the campaign was so small and so big at the same time and i love that it seems to be the same in the show even though it Easily and Understandably could’ve been something they cut because of the massive editing they have to do. just . god. they are so important to me and what was his mothers name and they went into the feywild to deal with her daddy issues and he helped her figure out a magic broom and she wore the stupid hat he had made for her and he minor imaged her skin green and he was a triceratops down the aisle and she isn’t perfect but she’s the most perfect of all of them and in his absence she said that their leader wasn’t with them and he turned her into a dragon and she flew him around a library and he made a wish for her and she told grog to stop carrying him like a football and he relentlessly bullied her bear and she wrote him a limerick to make fun of him almost sleeping with his daughter and he gave her 30 gold for a book and she saw a stranger with a shorter shadow and a familiar moniker and they’re best friends and they’re enemies and they’re family and they mean the world to me
Being a twin, and an identical one at that, is having a part of your soul detached and walking around in a different body. “Do not go far from me” is not a request but a demand, because you cannot bear it.
It’s a disorienting feeling looking at another person and seeing a mirror of yourself, but you blink and they’re just a few steps sideways of who you are. They’ve always been there, as constant as your own reflection, and nearly as accurate. They’ve always been who you wish you were.
When you grow up joined at the hip against the world, sometimes with no one else but them, it feels like every fight, every disagreement pushing you apart is the most devastating hurt you can imagine. It feels unfixable, until you cannot bear to be apart any longer and you fall back together like you were meant to be.
There is an incandescent rage flickering in your heart on their behalf at all times, even at the mere thought of an injustice against them. And when they’re hurt, or worse, of course you’re going to do everything you can to make it right. To fix them.
There is also sorrow. The knowledge that someday, somehow, inevitably, you will be the only one left. And you will be alone, and only half a person because you could not bear to make yourself whole when that would mean separating yourself from them.
And maybe one of you is the strong one, maybe one of you needs the other more, maybe you both think that about yourselves.
Maybe you would sacrifice yourself over and over so the other may live — selflessly, but also secretly selfish — so you don’t have to be the one left behind at the end of it. You don’t have to be the one who is alone.
The fact that Syldor called Vex a mistake is just ⎯ wow was that a powerful moment because it confirms every single doubt, every single fear that she’s ever had in her life. That just by being born, she’s made everyone else’s life worse for it, that her mere existence is an inconvenience. She doesn’t even have to courage to stand up for herself yet, all she can do is stand there and take the unwarranted abuse from a man she so desperately wants the approval of.
But Vax, sweet, loving Vax will take absolutely none of it. He may at times feel like a fuckup and feel like a failure and question what his purpose in life is but he refuses to let anyone make his sister feel small ⎯ he’ll even call out Vex herself if she ever tries to put herself down. His unwavering, unconditional belief in her, his absolute reverence of her, is exactly what she needs to build herself back up, whether she realizes it or not; even if he thinks she doesn’t need him or she doesn’t adequately express it, she does need him, she needs his reassurance, she needs his guidance, she needs his opinion on all matters. Even if it doesn’t entirely make the insecurity go away, even if she still feels the sting of her father’s rejection, the lingering ache of her mother’s murder, she has the comfort, love, and devotion of her brother, her best friend, her biggest fan.
And something that Vax will never be able to understand, is how anyone as wonderful as his sister could ever feel as low as she does sometimes, how anyone could ever think she was a mistake. The one he shares everything with, the one he always protects, if not from others than from her own self-doubt and shame, the person he depends on and trusts most in the world; in no way is she a mistake. He’s not so sure about himself sometimes, but his sister? No way, she’s perfect in his eyes, and always will be.
I'm loving the new wave of Vex appreciation that's happening because of TLOVM2. My girl deserves it and honestly she's so underrated. I was so happy Keyleth got her flowers for S1 given all the unfair hate towards her and Marisha in the campaign, and I love seeing Vex and Laura similarly embraced and loved by the fandom <3
on a rewatch it occurs to me that scanlan being the one to kill umbrasyl and fight his instinct to run away and in doing so, getting mythcarver back, is meant to sort of be a stand in for the city of brass when he awakens mythcarver fully
which makes sense bc again in the campaign scanlan earning his vestige wasn’t a full scale character arc like it was for the other members of the party. they went to the city of brass to get the plate of the dawn martyr for pike so i think animated series wise, they’ll try to focus those events fully on pike and thus scanlan’s character beat of awakening mythcarver by standing his ground and finishing the fight has to be placed elsewhere. it makes perfect sense then to slot it in here with the umbrasyl fight.
NOW I’M GOING TO TALK MAJOR SPOILERS FOR CAMPAIGN ONE SO LOOK AWAY IF YOU WANT TO EVENTUALLY BE TRAUMATIZED BY THE GNOME IN THE PUREST WAY POSSIBLE
this does still sort of leave me questioning if this wasn’t also meant to be a bard’s lament stand in if perhaps they don’t get the full 5 seasons i think sam mentioned wanting for the show. tonally, i think this works in favor to scanlan’s character provided we don’t get that big moment that is bard’s lament.
that said though, since i’ve studied that particular moment like one would a shakespeare play! still doing a bard’s lament beat after this would hit so good! play scanlan’s death during the raishan fight as everyone thinking he’s playing another joke on them at first. in the campaign it was played for laughs too! make the dawning horror on the party’s faces palpable as they realize that it’s not a joke this time! we still get our ‘fix him!’ we still get the rush the resurrect him bringing kaylie into the mix.
the sighs of relief when scanlan is still unconscious but breathing again! and it’s ok! scanlan’s ok! they can enjoy their victory! and hey now they can laugh and joke! it’s what scanlan would’ve wanted! and they’ve already alluded to how pike and percy did up his unconscious body with the whole kaylie thing so now just imagine how hard it’s gonna hit when he wakes up like that after dying and failing to be the hero he wanted to be for kaylie, huh? here he is right back in the position he started from.
i am thinking many thoughts. i am rotating the gnome in my mind. i am slipping the tlovm writers room $20.
