Fridge / The Legend of Vox Machina

Fridge Brilliance

D&D References

• We first see Vox Machina in the place where D&D campaigns often start: a tavern.
• Vex getting headaches around dragons is likely a representation of the Ranger ability Primeval Awareness, with some changes. Normally, it allows one to expend a spell slot to detect if any of a small handful of creatures are within one mile of your location, with dragons being an option. In the show, it seems to be an automatic thing with a smaller range, but otherwise appears to function the same.
• Uriel saying he hired Vox Machina because he liked the song. In campaign, Scanlan's song would likely count as a Performance check, using Charisma, and considering they were hired despite being... Vox Machina, it's likely he rolled a Natural 20.
• General Krieg is present when the army is getting encamped just before they're attacked by Brimscythe. He's also not shown during the fighting, and survives to be seen back in Emon. The only way it makes sense is if he's working with the dragon, or is the dragon (as is the case).
• Ball Tag in DnD terms. Unarmed Strike is a 1 bludgeoning damage melee attack, and since melee attacks can be increased by Strength, a class like Barbarian would make that punch hurt. And while Unarmed Strike has no other properties, some may argue that the fist can move as quickly as wielding a finesse weapon such as a dagger, so with Grog distracted (or having used Reckless Attack to ensure his attack hits but leaves himself open), a Rogue can use Sneak Attack to deal more damage since he'll have advantage, probably getting the highest roll as Grog keels over.
  • Because Sylas is a vampire, he has regeneration, but this only recovers up to 20 damage at the start of his turn. However, he does have Legendary Resistance where he could turn a failed saving throw into a success up to three times in a day. Based on his reaction, Sylas probably used a Resistance to negate Grog's Ball Tag stun and healed the small damage when he attacked back.
• Before losing her connection to the Everlight, Pike spent most of the time in combat in the early episodes in a purely support role: healing, buffing, defending, contributing very little offensively. After her character development and regaining her connection, she arrives at the battle at Whitestone and almost exclusively uses offensive magic to plow through the hordes of undead. Before her subplot, she was just a generic Cleric, but through that character development she had finally chosen her subclass: War Domain Cleric.
• When Grog closes his eyes so Sylas can't mind control him and starts swinging wildly, he finally, after two different fights with the vampire, lands a solid hit that sends Sylas flying. In D&D terms, he's using the Barbarian's Reckless Attack, a maneuver that greatly increases your chances to hit at the cost of leaving you vulnerable.
• Grog closing his eyes to avoid Sylas' charm. As a Path of the Berserker Barbarian above 6th level, Grog is immune to Charm while raging.
• Keyleth seems to be a little more prone to messing up than the rest. But assuming they have the same backstories they do in the campaign, it makes sense. She grew up being trained and taught in preparation for a possible role, but she was kept at home and sheltered until she was sent out to prove herself. The others had less sheltered upbringings, making Keyleth the one with the least real-world experience.
• Episode 4 shows the hit-point differences between adventurers and guards, or PCs and NPCs. The ghouls' single hit killed all the guards except the captain, who is presumably at a higher level, but all of Vox Machina took the same attacks and survived.
• Matthew Mercer voicing several prominent antagonists in series one and two, particularly those who play a secondary role to the actual planing antagonist and acts as a formidable physical threat to Vox Machina, makes sense. It's like he's the Game Master controlling these characters in opposition to the players, and both fights end with them becoming stronger in some fashion, by looting said corpse or taking the vestiges back, like they gained Exp for their success.

Other

• While Bigby's Hand being renamed "Scanlan's Hand" is due to Writing Around Trademarks, it's also perfectly in-character for Scanlan to rename a spell after himself.
• If you are aware of the events of the later parts of Campaign 1, then the opening credits sequence has a moment that is a mix between Fridge Brilliance and Fridge Horror: When the members of Vox Machina are slowly pulling themselves up from being beaten down, Vax is the only one who isn't seen getting up. This might be a nod to the fact that by the end of the campaign, Vax dies and becomes the Champion of the Raven Queen.
• During their first meeting with Gilmore, he demonstrates the same coin-finger-flip trick that Vax was doing in the village in the previous episode. Likely, in the animated series at least, he taught the trick to his favorite half-elven rogue.
• Vex'ahlia frequently displays an inherent greed for gold and shiny things. Now, this is in-character with her personality in Critical Role but in the show at least may also stem from a desire to be more "noble"... i.e. the way her father Syldor wanted her to be (from her perspective, at least). The flashback where she broke a precious family heirloom and he chewed her out would seem to support this.
• When Percy realizes he's going to be forced to sit across from the Briarwoods at dinner, he grits his teeth, narrows his eyes, and growls. Grog remarks that "shit's about to get real". As someone who weaponizes rage in battle, Grog should know rage when he sees it. He's correct, because Percy eventually snaps publicly after Delilah provokes him.
• While Vox Machina discusses amongst themselves during dinner, Vex is the only member to hide her mouth while speaking. She's the only one capable of lip-reading, and thus wary to it.
• The party needs a safeword and asks Grog for one, ensuring that it's simple enough for the resident Dumb Muscle to remember.
  • Immediately after Grog picks the safeword, Scanlan admits that his safeword is "mommy". A throwaway joke, yes, but also a hint toward the hidden trauma Scanlan has from when his mother was killed by goblin raiders.
• Sylas gloats at a cornered Pike that her gods can’t help her now. The person who saves Pike is Keyleth (who, as a druid, worships nature and follows no gods, and whose original counterpart professes that she’s “faithless when it comes to the gods”) creating a barrier of vines between them.
• Various mercenary groups are mentioned as being unavailable for slaying the dragon because they're dead or otherwise out of commission: Torian's Butchers, Death Dealers, Murder Hobos, and Agar's Assassins. ^note The last group isn't dead, Agar is the orc who picked a fight with Vox Machina in the Laughing Lamia and got his hand chopped off for it. The party names sound like what murderhobo parties — players who wander the world killing, looting, and fighting indiscriminately — would take up for themselves. Vox Machina succeeds where these groups failed precisely because they don't act like stereotypical murderhobos. Even though it paid them pennies, they did sign up to protect merchant carts (instead of becoming highwaymen), and even "killing goblins for gold" can be justified as defending people for a fee, as Exandrian goblins don't have the best reputation. They started doing good for material reasons, but the end result is that good outcomes are still achieved. At heart, they're good people, whose capacity for emotional investment in others drove them to not quit when things looked bad, instead doubling down on doing what's right. They never would have even found Brimscythe had they jumped to violence as soon as they suspected Sir Fince. The battle with Brimscythe was unwinnable as a straight fight, instead requiring them to interact with the world and discover his weaknesses, as well as use deception and tactics to pick up the win.
• Krieg's portal into Brimscythe's lair being a rather naughty painting of a dragonborn woman seems a rather incongruous choice. However, Brimscythe wasn't an ancient or even adult dragon (in the home game, at least), but was described as being between the "young" and "adult" stages, making him the dragon equivalent of a teenager. Suddenly, having a borderline pornographic image of a draconian woman in his private quarters makes a lot more sense.
  • Another hint of Krieg's identity, dragons being incredibly vain. So it would make sense why Krieg has such a large portrait of himself at the entrance of his home, he's stroking his own ego.
• Gilmore, who "anglicized" his name from Shaun Geddmore, doesn't speak with a Marquesian accent, possibly in an attempt to assimilate. Jarett Howarth does, but he's been in Tal'Dorei long enough that his accent has flattened out.
• Vex, catching on that Vax and Keyleth have a thing for each other, tries to warn her brother away from it. This could be her projecting due to her and Percy also becoming an item in the source material, and she may already have growing feelings that she's trying to suppress.
• Percy's placement in Scanlan's song is actually a clever bit of Association on the part of Scanlan. As shown later in the series, Percy was the one to invent and create his pepperbox, and therefore nobody has any real context for how powerful or dangerous his weapon is. By putting Percy's role next to Grog's, the most physically impressive and overtly powerful member of the group, Scanlan draws a connection between the two, implying that they are of similar strength. He further reinforces this by immediately saying that Percy's weapons "can blow apart your fucking skull.”.
• Why was Percy de Rolo even allowed to have a sit-down dinner with the Briarwoods? After all, some rudimentary research should probably have revealed that the de Rolos died out, and the Briarwoods then took over their lands. Any amount of serious research would have shown that these two likely share an intense feud, and it would be foolish to have them at the same party. So why was it allowed to happen?
  • We saw the Councillor who was probably most inclined to do this sort of research be killed, Sir Gregory Fince. Considering he was the only one actively looking for proof of General Krieg's true nature, it's likely he was the member of the council most inclined to do this sort of work. As such, with him dead, nobody is prepared to fill the gap he played on the Council.
  • The kingdom is also likely scrambling to investigate how General Krieg was able to get so close to the inner circle of the Kingdom, without being detected. Most likely any investigative resources the kingdom still has are currently being used to investigate this matter, not on comparing backstories of visiting dignitaries and mercenary bands the crown currently employs. Priorities would likely be on the giant dragon as opposed to diplomatic curiosity.
  • Nobody knows that Percy is a de Rolo. Nobody ever introduced him by his full name to the council (unlike the tabletop series where he rambles the full thing off any chance he gets), and he even mentions that he stopped trying to tell people years ago because nobody ever believes him.
  • Additionally, such research is predicated on need. If Delilah Briarwood's statement on the public reason is indeed what people think - that the de Rolo family simply retired - nobody would care. Given how insular Whitestone is, and that nobody expected the Briarwoods to show, it's unlikely even that little piece of information was known to the Council.
  • From what little we see, Uriel was suspicious of the Briarwoods, threatening to station a garrison in Whitestone. If Uriel was aware of Percy's lineage, it's likely Uriel is the reason Percy is seated across the table from the Briarwoods, specifically to provoke some sort of reaction. Uriel just didn't expect Sylas having supernatural charms.
• From a meta standpoint, it's amusing to have Keyleth's mother voiced by Janet Varney, who previously did Avatar Korra. Who else better to go on to try and master the four elements?
• As of "Into Rimecleft", Osysa's words to Scanlan: "Nobody cares about you. I'm no different", were not a Breaking Speech, but rather a "Not So Different" Remark, and a hint at things to come. Happy-go-lucky though he may seem, Scanlan is the only member of the party to empathize with both sphinxes' loneliness, and this ends up saving the day in her mate's trial. No wonder he goes on to earn the Knowing Mistress' blessing later in the campaign.
• Why does Percy shout out that he is "very flammable" while fighting the Fire Plane creatures in "Pass Through Fire"? Because he uses firearms that use gunpowder. Gunpowder is very flammable: one errant ember, and Percy could be blown sky high!
• In the very first episode it's established that Keyleth has such an insanely low tolerance for alcohol that she vomits multiple times after only one ale. However in season 2 during the party between the Herd of Storms and Vox Machina, Keyleth is drinking ale from a mug the size of her head with no side effects beyond a lower level of inhibitions. This could be handwaved by the particular writer(s) of this episode forgetting that moment in the first episode, but bear in mind, this episode takes place shortly after Keyleth passed her Fire Trial for her Aramente. Seems unrelated until you remember that Keyleth has the powers now to generate and control fire and alcohol is flammable.
• As Scanlan sinks through the ice, Percy asks if Keyleth could turn into a bird and save him. Given how earlier she turned into a giant eagle, he may have been referring to that. But since Keyleth was panicking and Percy wasn't specific in the "bird" form she's used, she didn't understand what he meant.

Fridge Horror

• During Vox Machina's first fight against Brimscythe, the dragon vaporizes an entire grove of trees as Keyleth looks on in horror. Being a druid, she is able to communicate with plants as if they are sentient beings. In her eyes, seeing all those destroyed trees was like seeing and hearing the dying screams of an entire group of people massacred in three seconds. No wonder she froze up.
• Percy shatters his glass because his hand clenched it in anger. Later, when Delilah finally makes him snap with her taunting, there's a shot of blood leaking from his white glove; Percy had not unclenched his hand in all that time, keeping the glass shards in, and his further anger causes the shards to dig through the glove and wound him. Even then, he doesn't pay any attention to the pain or bleeding. This foreshadows his overpowering, unbridled rage later, and calls back to the fact that he was tortured and thus have experience in withstanding pain.
• Vox Machina's stand-ins were still alive when they were hung on the Sun Tree, given that their mouths are open and some of them have their tongues protruding out. They also have cuts on their heads and elsewhere that don't look like Vax's bite marks - most likely they were tortured, then executed by hanging. The blue feathers and antlers looked to have been nailed to "Vex" and "Keyleth's" heads, judging by the blood at the site.
• Vax and Vex seemed to be hit particularly hard by the deaths of the family at the hands of the dragon, which makes it horrifying when you realize that this is them reliving their worst memory: a mother and two children - one boy and one girl - being the victims of a dragon attack on a small village. The only difference is that this time, the boy and the girl don't survive.
  • That village attack from the first episode? It was the work of one dragon! Season 2 opens with four dragons, each more powerful than Brimscythe, laying waste to Emon in a matter of minutes. Who knows what else they're capable of? Gilmore theorizes that they might even destroy all of Tal'Dorei given the chance.
• In Season 2, when helping out the Fire Ashari against the flame-breathing wyverns, Percy screams, "Shit, shit, I'm very flammable!" While this seems like an obvious (and hilarious) statement considering Percy is an ordinary human, Percy is also a gunslinger. He's actively carrying gunpowder. Even if he didn't get hit directly by a burst of flame, a little spark in just the right place could set him ablaze. And they'd just introduced the blackpowder merchant so he has to be well stocked...