Binge watched season 4 of The Legend of Vox Machina last night. It was thoroughly enjoyable. What do we call it? American anime? Feels strange to call it cartoon. It does not feel like cartoon the way Ben 10 felt, which, for a long time, was the last watchable American production for me. Perhaps it’s the adult themes that make me reach for a term other than ‘cartoon.’ In any case, it was a pleasant surprise to see something of this quality coming out of America. It was the middle of 2025 when I watched all three seasons of the series.

The chief complaint I had for the series is how immune the main characters were to death. Granted not every series is Game of Thrones, but when you seemingly kill off a main character only to bring him back (oh, wait, GoT did that too), the previous sequence of actions and the sacrifices of characters get cheapened. Vexalia died to get resurrected soon after because of Vaxiliam’s deal with the Matron. Fine once. But then Percy died, there was a funeral, and later he got brought back. At this point, you stop believing that these characters can die. When Scanlan was in a coma, you knew he would be back after a while.

In S4, Vax’s deal brings him closer to death as time passes, but you never quite believe it. When Grog gets sucked into the black orb, again, it did not feel like he really died. Indeed, a few episodes later, he was back. In the finale, we get to see Vax refusing to bow down to the newly ascended god, and get vaporized. That looks like a final deal. But given how many times characters have been resurrected, I find it hard to allow myself to be emotionally affected by the loss. Some deus ex machina is surely cooking: there will be some kind of a middle realm in which Vax rendezvous with the Matron, gain some more powers, and return.

Some other notes:

  1. Keyleth is just too powerful. She has mastered all four elemental magic. She can control plants and speak to animals, and even transform into animals. It is not clear what her weakness is.
  2. Percy and Vex have not had a power up since the show began. Sure, some vestiges and more gunpowder power… but inherently, these two are the way they have always been. Also, bullets and arrows are the most useless things in anime. How do these two manage to keep up?
  3. Replacing Scanlan with Taryon (who is a mix between Scanlan and Gilmore) was an interesting choice. Annoying at times, but he was an excellent comic relief throughout the show.
  4. On gods and their machinations: The Whispered One was an interesting villain. Luciferian. The themes of having gods withhold information and deceive their followers were interesting. But in the end, the Whispered One totally dropped the veil; that was too stark.
  5. On a related note, Pike’s oscillations, especially the last one, was not convincing. It was an interesting story to tackle, but the execution could have been better.

Would I recommend the series?

It’s an incomplete series. It is based on the improvisation of many characters. So as with manga that is not produced one whole book at a time, I have reservations about how well a series like this will wrap up.

But if you are able to tolerate a potentially weak ending to the series, The Legend of Vox Machina taken one episode at a time, is very entertaining: something worth recommending.