Zahra says that the Slayer’s Take only meant to protect Osysa’s secrets and keep the Vestige from falling into unworthy hands, but Vex is clearly worthy. In one of the more anime-esque fight sequences we’ve seen in the show so far (meant as a compliment, mostly!), Vax defeats the monster with newfound ease. It’s only when he decides to stop fighting and let his opponent hit him willingly that this act of acceptance unlocks the Vestige’s true power (and it means he’s officially the Matron of Ravens’ new champion). While his friends are getting their butts petrified, he has a vision where an undead figure - the Matron of Ravens’ previous champion - beats the shit out of him. And it gives Vax a chance to show off just how powerful the Vestiges are. Zahra’s betrayal and Ctrl-Zing of said betrayal are just a means to a cool fight.Īt least it is a cool fight, with the monster’s tentacles flying all over the place. It’s a motivational flip-flopping that, especially combined with how fast everybody just makes up and says “no hard feelings” at the end of the episode, feels a little cheap. It doesn’t take too long before Zahra changes her mind and attempts to trap the monster back in her amulet, but she’s quickly turned to stone, too. Kash wants no part of this and rushes to aid the group as they’re petrified one by one. Zahra still wants the Vestige, so she betrays Vox Machina, releasing some eldritch monster from a little fantasy Pokéball that turns them to stone. Putting the impact of Vex’s death and revival on her brother is an interesting narrative twist, but the rest of the episode isn’t quite so clever with its storytelling. No, the goddess of death has taken Vax into her service, and what that entails loomed over the rest of the first Critical Role campaign as it will over the rest of this show. Apparently, the Matron of Ravens agreed to take him instead of his sister, but it wasn’t as simple as trading one death for another. Vax is still alive, too, but he’s now wearing the Deathwalker’s Ward. “Take me instead,” he shouts, and the Matron of Ravens cuts the golden string without a word. Vax, however, can see her - and the thread tethering his spirit to his twin sister’s. The Matron of Ravens, the goddess of death herself, won’t allow such a thing to happen in her place of power. Kash, a cleric like Pike, tries to work with her to revive Vex, but it’s not working. In the present, Zahra and Kash come back from their dead-end exploration just in time to realize that they’ve been beaten to the Vestige and that Vex is dead. Now, it seems he’s about to take on that role in a much more literal way, whether he wants to or not. This cold open could have been an unnecessary Trinket origin story, but there’s added meaning. But the bear had a cub, little Trinket, which Vex adopts. Vax humanely euthanizes the bear, freeing it from its pain. Vax rescues his sister when she gets herself captured, and while fleeing, they stumble upon a tremendous bear that the captors have tormented and injured. It’s a trio of episodes that more explicitly lay the groundwork for momentous things to come, even if they don’t quite have the mastery of the tone that the first three episodes of season two did.īefore Vex breathes again, though, we’re treated to another flashback of Vex and Vax when they were younger and on their own after fleeing their dad’s abusive home. But, in this second batch of episodes, The Legend of Vox Machina does the work in making sure that, even if Vex’s return from the dead seems like no big deal to knowing audiences (and, amusingly, to her, as she’s pretty nonchalant about it), we’re still seeing the ripple effects that show how this resurrection matters and will continue to matter down the line. Resurrection is a common trope in stories like this and is built into the rules of the game Critical Role runs on. To anybody who has played Dungeons & Dragons - or even watched, like, any genre fiction ever - it’s not a shock that Vex’ahlia doesn’t stay dead.
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